Centre clears use of Nainital's Metropole Hotel as temporary parking space to ease traffic woes
Nainital: To address Nainital's ongoing parking crisis, the Union ministry of home affairs on Wednesday issued formal directives allocating the premises of the Metropole Hotel to the Uttarakhand govt for temporary use as a parking facility.
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Built in 1880, the hotel once belonged to the Raja of Mehmoodabad, who migrated to Pakistan. A luxury destination in its prime, it famously hosted figures such as Pakistan's founding father, Mohd Ali Jinnah, who spent his honeymoon there. It was designated 'enemy property' in the early 1960s.
The ministry's decision follows a request by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who cited the tourist town's acute parking shortage and proposed using the hotel's expansive open grounds, capable of accommodating over 1,000 vehicles, for public parking.
According to a state govt communique, Union home minister Amit Shah responded positively, confirming the ministry's approval in an official letter to the CM. Thanking Shah, Dhami said the move would "significantly ease traffic congestion and improve logistical convenience in the region."
Spread over 10 acres, the once-celebrated property had fallen into disrepair after being declared enemy property, with encroachers gradually occupying its open land. In 2023, around 134 families were evicted following Supreme Court orders. In Oct last year, the custodian office of enemy properties under the Union home ministry had issued a temporary No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the Nainital district magistrate, allowing surface parking on an ad-hoc basis.
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