M V Shanbag of Akshay Caterers had asked for the NOC to obtain the health licence for the restaurant on the Jangli Maharaj Road while submitting an undertaking on Thursday saying that he would not encroach upon the basement and marginal spaces of the building and that the cases filed against the civic administration would be withdrawn within four days.

Once the undertaking was furnished, the building department lost no time in taking further action and a conditional NOC was forwarded to the health department the same evening.

According to the city engineer Madhav Harihar, the NOC imposed following conditions on the hotelier: he would withdraw cases against the civic administration within four days and inform the civic administration about the same; he would obtain the required NOC from police; he would ensure that the restaurant would not cause air or sound pollution in the area; the basement of the building will be used exclusively for vehicle parking and no unauthorised structure will be constructed in the front margin again.

Harihar said it was a serious lapse on the part of his department to issue the NOC before the revised plan of the building was passed. It may be noted that builder had earlier asked for shopping permission and he is required to submit revised paln of the building to run the hotel. The revised plan was submitted on July 26, which is still pending with the corporation.

While Shanbaug has claimed in his undertaking that the health licence was pending with the health department, chief health officer Dr Anil Ravetkar maintained that Kamat Restaurant was closed on May 19 when the hotelier failed to comlete the formalities. Ravetkar said the building permission in its earlier report had categorically stated that the revised plan could not be sanctioned to run the hotel. He also made it clear that the department had not received any fresh application for health licence from the hotelier. He said that the NOC issued by building permission department was.

The restaurant has become in the centre of a controversy as it had been found operating without any licence from the PMC for the last several months. Moreover, the civic administration had demolished the encroachments in its side and front margins on several occasions.

The civic administration then took stringent actions like disconnecting water supply, requesting the police to withdraw their NOC to the restaurant and seeking permission of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prosecute the hotel owner as per the provisions under section 7 (III) of Food and Drug Adulteration Act.