Opening a new hotel or restaurant? Apply for BMC permit online

In a good news for Mumbai’s budding restaurateurs, the BMC has launched a single window system under which business owners can apply for licenses and permissions – required for opening a new hotel or restaurant – online.

The civic body launched the system under its ‘ease of doing business’ initiative, which is aimed encouraging entrepreneurs to start and operate businesses in the city.

At present, business owners have to obtain permissions and No Objection Certificate (NOC) from each department separately, which makes the process lengthy and cumbersome.

There is also no fixed time frame within which the license/permission would be issued.

Now, based on the hotel industry’s feedback, the BMC has started allowing owners to apply for the permit online.

The new process does not require the owner to visit each department individually as the necessary documents can be uploaded on the civic body’s website directly.

Moreover, the civic body has made it mandatory for each department to inform the applicant in case of missing or additional documents within 15 days of filling the form.

Once the documents are in order, the BMC will sent the permit copy to the applicant via e-mail within 27 working days.

Both BMC Chief Ajoy Mehta and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have been striving towards making Mumbai more business-friendly. In 2016, the state even scrapped five licences that restaurateurs had to take from police annually.

Going forward, the municipal corporation plans to allow businesses to renew the license for shops and establishments online.

The new business (hotel or restaurant) application form, along with a list of required documents, can be found here.