At least 30,000 rooms will be needed to handle the rush during the Games.

Jointly conducted by the Delhi Police and the Pusa Institute of Hotel Management, the survey lists 715 licensed and 215 unauthorised hotels; 320 are in the process of obtaining a licence. A major chunk of unauthorised hotels are in Central Delhi. “During the survey, unauthorised hotels were fined by the police. They have been advised to get a licence. Now, these hotels are applying in large numbers,” a senior police officer said.

The two-month survey was aimed at encouraging unauthorised hotels to get a licence from the Delhi Police Licensing Branch before the Games. To simplify the licensing process, the Licensing Branch has been centralised.

“Hotels need not send their applications to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Fire Department separately. They only need to apply to us and we will forward their applications to these bodies,” a senior officer involved in the survey said.

The MCD has also relaxed its rules. Earlier, a hotel needed to have parking space for cars for every 100 sq m of its plot. Now, the hotel can deposit the sum needed for constructing parking space with the MCD, which will build a centralised multi-storeyed parking close to a few hotels.

The Delhi Police Licensing Branch was approached by the Tourism Ministry for the survey, for which students of Pusa Institute of Hotel Management volunteered. The survey rated the hotels on their service, number of rooms, cleanliness, etc.