DILIP DATWANI, Chairman and Managing Director, Datwani Hotels Pvt. Ltd. has been elected as the President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) for the year 2016-2017 at the 66th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Mumbai recently.
Datwani has been an active voice and part of the hotel and restaurant fraternity for over two decades. Known for actively promoting the interests of the industry, he has in the recent past officiated in several capacities including Chairman of the Membership Committee, Chairman of the Classification Committee, and Senior Vice President of HRAWI; besides being an Executive Committee Member of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).
“HRAWI has made tremendous progress and has crossed several important milestones in the last few years. The immediate past committee leadership has relentlessly strived to voice the concerns of members to the Governments and has ensured expedited resolutions where it was much needed. Of the several things that are being panned out for the future at HRAWI, the first would be to set up Food Testing Laboratories that will provide hotels and restaurants the benefit of conducting an unbiased audit of foods from their kitchens,” says Datwani.
He owns and operates Shatranj Napoli, a landmark restaurant at Pali Hill, Bandra. A far-sighted entrepreneur, Datwani incepted this stand-alone specialty restaurant back in 1989 which to date, toasts the who’s who of the corporate and the cine world. Besides this, he also operates a transit hotel – Jayshree at the Mumbai Domestic Airport and has plans to set up a business boutique hotel at Bandra-Kurla Complex.
“Our immediate priority is to implement and promote the independent hotel classification. This was developed by HRAWI in a bid to modernise and standardise the classification procedures of hotels as per international standards. Under the Ease of Doing Business for hospitality, we intend to knock on the doors of the several departments including tourism, urban development, home department, and excise among others for addressing issues ranging from opening up of 24x7 tourism zones and Single Window Clearance to Scrapping of ‘One day – Club License’ and health permits. Apart from this we will continue working inclusively with the Governments on several other fronts which the association has been pursuing in the interest of hospitality and tourism in India,” he concludes.
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