Kodaikanal hotel owners appeal to HC to reconsider order on e-pass system

MADURAI: Many hotel owners in the hill station of Kodaikanal, Dindigul district, have requested the Madras High Court to reconsider its recent ruling mandating e-pass for non-residents of Kodaikanal to enter the hill station with effect from May 7.

S Abdul Gani Raja, president, Kodaikanal Hotel and Resort Owners Association on Thursday said stakeholders relying on tourism would be forced out of business once the ruling comes into effect.

The flow of tourists, whose turnout will be high especially in this summer season of May, would dwindle to a trickle.

It’s likely that this new regulation would take Kodaikanal back to the bad old days of COVID lockdown when tourists got access to Kodaikanal only based on e-passes.

During the COVID scenario, the unhealthy situation necessitated authorities to restrict the Kodaikanal bound tourists in the public interest to prevent the spread of virus.

It’s unclear how the HC ruling would apply to the non-residents of Kodaikanal and tourists, who drive in from around the world.

He then wondered whether many stakeholders, who hold commercial property investments, from other states, in Kodaikanal and frequenting this hill station would be treated as ‘outsiders’ and barred from entering Kodaikanal. Outsiders could mostly be tourists.

If vehicular traffic is a real matter of concern because of crowd congestion, let the authorities come up with effective strategies to avoid congestion. He opined that a spacious parking lot could be set up at Perumalmalai for heavy vehicles and set up new multi-level parking facilities and lot of spaces left in areas under the control of Forest Department could well be converted into vehicle parking lots, he opined.

KM Sivakumar, who owns farm lands at Pandrimalai in Kodaikanal, said he has been frequenting the hill station from Madurai and asked how he could be restricted as an outsider under the e-pass system.