Damauli, November 17

Due to acute shortage of fuel and other food items, almost 40 per cent hotels of Tanahun district have pulled their shutters down.

First vice-chairman of Regional Hotel Association, Tanahun, Dinesh Khanal said hotels in the district were almost closed as they could not operate due to shortage of petroleum products, cooking gas and food materials, among others, after the blockade at different border points. He said there were around 1,200 hotels in the district.

Hotel entrepreneurs said they were compelled to pull down the shutters because they were unable to prepare food items as per the menu and the order of customers.

Chairman of Regional Hotel Association Tanahun, Ganesh Kumar Shrestha said some hotel operators were having a hard time operating hotels using firewood to cook food. “It is very difficult to find even firewood,” he said, adding, “The hotels will close down if the situation does not normalise within some days”.

It is said employees have also been laid off after the hotels started closing down one after another due to the fuel crunch. The entrepreneurs said that Rs 50 lakh was transacted by hotels every day earlier. “But business has come down to Rs 10 lakh per day,” they added.

The association said that transaction had declined by 80 percent. Some entrepreneurs said they had to operate the hotels even during crisis for the sake of prestige.

Proprietor Tulasi Ram Sapkota of Pigeon Hill Hotel, Byash Municipality, said it was very difficult to operate hotel using only firewood. “I have been operating hotels with great difficulty for the sake of my prestige,” he said. He further said it was hard to provide food items to customers and that could defamed business.

The association said entrepreneurs faced more problems when police raided hotels. They added that business could not thrive as neither the state nor the concerned bodies had shown interest in promoting hotels.