Golaghat, Oct. 31: The Golaghat district administration is all set to implement the Sarai Act, 1867 in more than 100 hotels, lodges, inns, resorts and guesthouses situated in and around the vicinity of Kaziranga National Park.

The move comes after a letter, issued by M.G.V.K. Bhanu, principal secretary to the chief minister, to the deputy commissioner of Golaghat, Nitin Khade, instructed him to take steps to ensure strict adherence of the Sarai Act to ensure that hoteliers provide a hygienic and safe environment to tourists visiting the park.

The park will be opened to visitors from tomorrow.

The act was implemented during the British era with the objective of regulating public sarais.

The act defines sarai as any building used to shelter and accommodate travellers. It requires that the magistrate of the district, in which any sarai to which this act shall apply is situated, shall issue to the keeper of every such sarai a notice in writing requiring the keeper to register the sarai under this act.

Tanuj Goswami, additional deputy commissioner of Golaghat, told The Telegraph that they would instruct the sub-divisional officer of Bokakhat sub-division, as the national park falls under it, to issue notices to the owners to get their inns registered under the act.

“We are yet to finalise the modalities regarding the documents to be submitted by the hoteliers. Now it will become compulsory to register under this act,” he said.

According to the act, if a hotelier fails to register his/her establishment even one month after such a registration notice is issued, then he/she would be barred from keeping guests.

Some of the duties of the keepers of sarais under this act are to thoroughly clean rooms, verandahs and drains, as well as wells, tanks and other sources of water, to the satisfaction of the magistrate or anyone else appointed on his behalf.

It also requires the owner to remove all noxious vegetation on or near the sarai, to repair the gates, walls, fences, roofs and drains of the sarai, to provide watchmen for the safety and protection of the guests and to exhibit a list of charges for the use of the sarai.

The move assumes importance as the park witnesses a heavy rush of both local and foreign tourists in the season, which lasts for six months every year.

Last year, 1,21,513 local tourists and 6,922 foreign tourists visited the national park, generating a revenue of Rs 2.68 crore.