The city of Ahmedabad will now witness a delay in the opening of the luxurious five-star hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, because of non clearance of its Building Use (BU) permission from Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Some sources told that the Marriott authorities, anticipating clearance, had booked guests in advance as the property was to be launched at Ramdevnagar on November 5 to mark the hotel chain's 10th year in India. Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi was to inaugurate the hotel, but that too had to be put off because he was indisposed. With 164 guest rooms, this hotel has banquet space with lounge and swimming pool.
The change in plan has left several delegates participating in a diabetes seminar in the city in trouble as they had to book other hotels at the last minute. Dr. Mayur Patel, Organizing Chairman of 37th annual meeting of Research Society of Study of Diabetes in India, said that 120 rooms had been booked in advance for topnotch medical delegates from different countries for ongoing diabetes conference but hotel authorities informed them that they would not be able to host them and it was very difficult at that time to manage rooms at five star hotels in the city.
On the reasons for delay in BU permission, Neela Munshi, senior town planner AUDA, said that the clearance would be given as per law and it used to take at least 90 days for getting BU permission. He added that Marriott hotel authorities had pre-booked the hotel in anticipation of getting BU permission within that time period. Rockey Israni, Pacifica, developer of the five-star hotel said that they had done booking of the hotel in one month advance as they were hopeful of getting BU permission from AUDA but they were unsure about the reasons for the delay in BU permission. He added that they accommodated all the guests who had booked at Marriott, in other hotels.
