Mangaluru : The Mangaluru City Corporation, which renovated the common persons’ hall, inaugurated on November 14, at a cost of Rs. 4.58 crore, will allot it for programmes from December 1.

According to the draft of the revised rentals which were yet to be finalised, hiring the hall will be costlier from next month. The draft would come up for scrutiny before the Standing Committee for Taxation, Finance and Appeals on Thursday. Later it would be placed before the council on November 30 for its scrutiny and approval.

The rent for hiring the hall for wedding with air-conditioned facility was earlier Rs. 35,000, including the ground rent of Rs. 10,000. In addition, those who hired the hall had to pay Rs. 10,000 as booking charge which was refundable.

Now, the rent has been hiked to Rs. 90,000, while the ground rent for erecting shamiyana for serving food has been retained at Rs. 10,000. The advance booking charge has been hiked to Rs. 40,000. Chairman of the committee Harinath told that private halls in the city would cost a minimum of Rs. 1.5 lakh.

It would be inevitable for the corporation to hike the rent as the hall had been renovated with air-conditioned facility, modern push back seats and latest acoustic facilities.

He claimed that some cultural organisations had been consulted before fixing the revised rent for Yakshagana programmes which were very popular. Mr. Harinath said that the committee would take a decision on finalising the rentals on Thursday. The committee was unlikely to revise the draft further and the rentals would likely to remain the same. Its decision would be tabled before the council.

He said that bookings were being done to hire the hall from December 1.