Jammu and Kashmir government will consider issuing no objection certificate to hotels in the civil lines area of the Valley for four years if the Housing and Urban Development Department assures it to connect all the building for this purpose with sewerage treatment plant.

"The government would consider issuance of no objection certificate (NOC) for four years by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) for renewal of registration of hotels, with an assurance by the Housing and Urban Development Department for connecting hotels of civil lines area with sewerage treatment plant," an official spokesman said after a joint meeting of environment and tourism ministries here yesterday.

The meeting was jointly chaired by Minister for Forest and Environment Mian Altaf Ahmad and Minister for Tourism and Culture Nawang Rigzin Jora.

Senior officials of the two ministries, besides officials of the PCB, attended the meeting.

The spokesman said hotels having six to 19 rooms do not require NOC from PCB for their registration.

"However, in order to ease the registration process of the hotels having accommodation of more than 19 rooms, it was decided that the hotel owners would upgrade the existing septic tank facilities of their hotels for ensuring requisite formalities for registration," he said.

The spokesman said the meeting also discussed problems of houseboat owners which included setting up of timber depots in the vicinity of Dockyard at Dalgate.

Altaf assured that setting up of timber sale depot in the area would be examined on priority and necessary orders issued at the earliest.

Jora asserted that promotion of hotel industry for facilitating tourists in the state is the priority of the government, saying focused attention is being given to mitigate their problems.

He called upon the hoteliers to ensure better hospitality to the tourists on genuine rates.