Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 12

The Amritsar Hotel and Restaurants’ Association (AHARA) has managed to arrange more than 3,000 rooms all over Punjab to quarantine non-resident Punjabis, who are expected to start landing from different countries at international airports in Mohali and Amritsar from Wednesday onwards.

APS Chatha, president of AHARA, said despite the lockdown, the association managed to arrange over 3,000 rooms for quarantine. About 9,000 persons would arrive in the next few days. These people are residents of different parts of Punjab.

AHARA opened these rooms on the request of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB). Occupants will pay for the rooms.

Of these, over 600 rooms will be available in 40 hotels of Amritsar. These hotels will be of all categories, including luxury, classified and non-classified.

However, all payments would be settled directly by guests to hotels. Performance on parameters such as hygiene would be the total responsibility of hotels.

AHARA has been able to procure hotels in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohalli, Zirakpur, Patiala, Bathinda, Sangrur and Mansa among other places.

This opening will infuse a fresh lease of life to the industry in this difficult time to earn some revenue to pay off salaries and electricity bills.