7th issue

GPLUS AUG 10 - AUG 16, 2013 11
To book a wedding hall in the city, one
has to be lucky. It is a lucrative business
and no wonder they are mushrooming
everywhere.
PraTik DHar
“
Marriages are made
in heaven and celebrated
in wedding
halls.” This is true in today’s world
when having a wedding at one’s
home has become passé. Just after
a wedding is confirmed, the hall is
the very next thing to be booked
so as to avoid the rush during a
wedding season. The choice has
changed from one’s home to these
halls because of the convenience -
the space, parking, catering, guest
rooms and other hassle-free solutions.
In Guwahati, there are numerous
wedding halls that have
sprung up with an aim to become
profitable and today the city has a
total of more than 60 big and small
wedding halls.
PERMISSIONS
ETC
Starting up a wedding hall is
not easy and goes through a process
of strict inspection before
the permission is granted and it is
based on the measurement of the
plot area. Today, the parking area
has become biggest issue for the
wedding halls and GMC has become
very strict regarding this. According
to the Building Bye Laws,
for a marriage hall, one parking
space has to be provided for every
50 square metre plot area.
For waste disposal, the wedding
hall must have a proper system
and should have a contract
with ‘Ramky’(a group with which
GMC has tied up for garbage disposal.).
A road with a minimum width
of 6.6 metres is mandatory in front
of a hall and NOC’s from the Lift
Inspector, Chief Electrical Advisor
(Government of Assam) and State
Fire Service shall be required.
Recently an agreement was
made between the owners of the
wedding halls and the GMC which
instructed the owners to appoint
their own security personals with
proper uniforms to assist and
maintain parking facilities.
BUSINESS
SCENARIO
Setting up a wedding hall and
renting it out for wedding ceremonies
is a flourishing business. In
fact not only weddings but these
halls are also rented out for various
WEDDING BELLS AND
other functions as well, yielding a
respectable profit for the owner.
On asking Mr. Prasenjit Narayan
Dev, owner of the marriage hall
‘Chaturang,’ now longer functional
now, said that starting a wedding
hall is a one-time investment and
a very profitable business. Though
the owner has to invest heavily for
the sake of maintenance of the hall,
it is negligible when compared to
the profit it rakes in. Wedding halls
remain booked durin
Mr. Tulen Das, Superviser of
the ‘Decora,’ one of the oldest marriage
halls in the city is of the view
that the demand for these halls are
increasing because of the increase
in population of people. He says,
nowadays most of the people cannot
afford to organise wedding
ceremonies at their homes because
of lack of space and organizational
problems.
Mr. Gautam Hazarika, owner
of the Arati Commercial Hall says
that there is a huge demand for
wedding halls. People today opt
for wedding halls because they are
available at reasonable rates and
everything including electricity,
water supply and generator backup
are available under one shed making
the entire affair hassle free.
There is another reason for their
demand because most of the people
nowadays live in apartments
and so they have very little or no
space to spare. In such a case the
only solution is a marriage hall.
“We pay an annual amount
for the renewal of the trade license
along with a commercial floor tax
to the GMC. Employee salaries,
electricity and water supply bills
are the other expenses. Every wedding,
we make a profit of around
40-50% even after paying off all our
expenses. This might be a reason
for people to look at it as a lucrative
business opportunity.”
MAJOR
PROBLEMS
Wedding halls are supposed
to have adequate parking facilities
but that is not the case with some
of the wedding halls where the
parking space is just a namesake
and most of the vehicles are parked
on the main road. Places like Zoo
Road, Ganeshguri and the G.S.
Road are the most affected areas in
such cases where, because of a few
ill placed wedding spaces, the normal
traffic is disrupted.
WEDDING HALLS
Another important requirement
is the garbage disposal system,
a rule which is flouted by many
of these halls. They are supposed to
have their personal disposal area
or soak pit and cannot dispose off
their garbage in the public areas.
Another strict rule of the GMC
says that firecrackers cannot be lit
in the vicinity of the hall causing
both noise and air pollution..
THE SITUATION
Some of the wedding halls have
come under the scanner of the
GMC and have been asked to be
shut down for violation of the rules
regarding parking facilities, garbage
disposal, noise pollution and
others. There are certain norms
and regulations that are to be followed
by these halls for them to be
in business in a certain area.
The GMC authorities were also
concerned about the unauthorised
construction and use of residential
buildings for marriage ceremonies
and last year, the officials inspected
around 51 marriage halls in the
city after which their owners were
asked to produce the details of
approved plans of the buildings
before the civic body. The authorities
have been strict regarding the
wedding halls and their operation
and clearance is done only if they
provide the necessary documents
to the body. Presently, the GMC is
waiting for the new revised Building
Bye laws to arrive according to
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