Community halls in south Delhi will soon cost cheaper. The standing committee of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Thursday said that the fares will be revised so that the halls could be afforded by more people.
The committee said that high rates of these halls have deterred people belonging to low-income groups from making bookings.
The meeting raised a concern that after the fares were hiked in 2015, the bookings had slumped drastically. This resulted in lower revenue for the civic body. Though the revised rates are still to be decided, the committee members said that a 20-30% slash is likely.
Final rates
“The decision to reduce rates was taken during the standing committee meeting. The pros and cons of a fare revision were considered, and we came to the conclusion that the municipal community halls should be affordable. We will come with a final proposal in this regard during the next meeting. Final rates will only be decided after we receive a preliminary proposal,” said Bhupender Gupta, SDMC standing committee chairperson.
The committee also proposed that all the halls be renovated and facilities be upgraded. The members suggested that some of the non-air conditioned halls be made air conditioned.
There are 74 community halls under the SDMC at present, out of which only 21 are AC halls.
The civic agency’s community halls are divided into five categories — A, B, C, D and E.
For hiring a hall in category A, people have to pay as much as ₹42,500, which includes revised and hiked booking fee, security deposit, and cleaning charges.
Similarly, for category B halls, the cost is ₹27,000.
Booking a category C costs ₹22,000; category D halls cost ₹13,500, up from the earlier rate of ₹6,000 and category E halls cost ₹8,500.