Hotel owners 'must' arrange transport for drunk guests on New Year's

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The Thane collector and the police have decided to hold hotel/restaurant owners responsible for drunk customers on New Year's Eve. They will have to arrange for transport to drop drunk customers home. The Thane collector and the police will soon issue guidelines for the same.

This was decided in a meeting held by the collector of Thane with RTO officials, traffic police, and highway security police. The guidelines will also mention that hotels should not serve drinks to minors.

So far the guidelines are for Thane district. More than 10,000 officials including personnel of the RTO, local police, special cell officials will monitor the city and suburbs on December 31.

Highway Traffic DCP Rupali Ambure said, "We have asked hotel owners to help a customer if he is not in a state to reach home safely. If they serve alcohol to the customer and find he is too drunk, then it is their responsibility to ensure he does not drive." A traffic police official said, "If we hold someone in a drunk and drive case, or in a case of rash driving, then we will inform the police and the Excise Department about the hotel they went to, and seek action against it."

Hotel Association head of Ambernath, Ravindra Anchan said, "I appreciate this rule because the customer is our responsibility. But it's a bit difficult to make arrangements to drop them home. We will hold a meeting in the next two days to discuss how we can manage this. We will find a solution and definitely follow the rules set by officials."

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