Games Village may be stunted

Hotels should not be higher than temple: Akshardham head priest.

Hoteliers' ambitions to build sky-scrapers at the Commonwealth Games Village site in Delhi are under the threat of being stymied by divine intervention.

The head priest of Akshardham Temple, situated near the Commonwealth Games Village site, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that none of the proposed hotels should be higher than the temple, which measures 141.3 feet from the ground.

In deference to the letter, the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) plans for developing hotels at the Games Village site through public-private partnerships, for which the auction was to be announced 36 days ago, have been held up.

The DDA has identified 5.5 hectares (13.6 acres) at the site for hotels.

A source assisting the DDA told Business Standard that the head priest's letter was the primary reason for the delay.

"The prime minister forwarded the letter to the ministry of urban development and the DDA, the implementing agency of the Games Village site. Now, the DDA is working out the technical specifications for the hotels," added the source.

Hoteliers are concerned because they wanted to build tall, multi-storeyed hotel towers overlooking the Yamuna. But if they kowtow to the priest's wish, the hotel towers will not be above around 10 storeys.

It is also learnt that the DDA is planning to license these hotels to private players till 2040, after which a renewal option will be available for another 25 years.

Another stumbling block for the DDA is that it still has to decide how to parcel the 13.6 acres into hotel sites. It wants to appoint a "design consultant" to make decisions like how many hotels to develop and their size.

Also, the DDA and the ministry of sports and youth affairs are not able to agree on the category of hotels.

"The sports ministry feels that because there are quite a few five-star hotels in the Capital, the DDA should look at budget accommodation at the site. The DDA, on the other hand, wants five-star hotels because it will be able to rake in more money from the licence fee that it will charge (as a certain percentage of a hotel's turnover)," added the source.