In an enabling move that will go a long way in giving a boost to the hospitality sector in the City, the Lt. Governor, Sh V.K. Saxena recently launched the Modified Unified Portal for Licensing of Eating, Lodging and Boarding Establishments. The dignitaries present for the launch ceremony included Chief Secretary of Delhi, Commissioner of Delhi Police; Commissioner of MCD and Chairman, NDMC amongst others.
This Single Window Portal will help entrepreneurs, businessmen and start-ups in the hospitality sector by way of ensuring that a single easy to fill form, enables them to get / renew Licenses from 05 different agencies including Delhi Police, MCD, NDMC, Delhi Fire Service and DPCC, simultaneously within a fixed timeframe of 49 days. Establishments will now be able to operate under a much simplified, minimal and enabling licensing regime, in the National Capital.
Addressing the gathering of restaurateurs, hoteliers and others, the Governor said that, "enabling the hospitality sector, with these simplified Licensing norms, would prove to be the first step in the direction of a robust 'Night Time Economy' in Delhi. "Since the existing license regime in the city was found to be restrictive in terms of the requirements and demands of the entrepreneurs and people, a High-Level Committee under the Principal Secretary (Home), comprising top officers from all stakeholder departments was constituted to ease the same," he said

In the new Common Application Form (CAF), 140 fields have been removed and the uploading of 28 documents has been done away with. Instead of 05 affidavits that was supposed to be submitted earlier, the applicants will now have to submit a Single Common Undertaking for all 05 agencies. The requirement of documents for the renewal of licenses has been minimized and no fresh documents, barring those whose validity has expired, will be required. The applicants will have to submit just a common undertaking.

Similarly, the validity of Licenses / NOCs has been made coterminous for all agencies and has been extended to 03 years. Earlier, the validity varied from 01 to 05 years for different agencies, and that any time, an applicant had to run around for getting these renewed in a haphazard manner. To make the system transparent and accountable, timelines for grant or renewal have been fixed for all agencies and responsibility will be fixed in case of delays. In any case, the entire process of granting or renewing Licenses will have to be completed within 49 days from the receipt of the application. In case, the License is not granted or renewed within 49 days, it will be deemed to have been issued automatically. This will be a vast improvement on the hitherto existing regulations that resulted in applications for Licenses remaining pending for 03 years in many cases apart from harassment to the applicants.
The number of documents required for the grant of a fresh License has been reduced from 52 to 24. In the case of renewal, while 25 documents were required earlier, none will be required now. All payments will be made online and applicants will be able to download License certificates, online. The Governor informed that work was also on, on easing and liberalizing the Licensing norms for the amusement segment of the hospitality industry.