Chandigarh, March 26: Cricket fans have booked rooms as far away as in Parwanoo in Homachal Pradesh, about 40 km from Chandigarh, to watch the March 30 semifinal between India and Australia, says a media report.
Almost all hotel rooms in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula are booked till March 30, says the report.
Other hotels in a 50km-radius of Mohali and Chandigarh are waiting for a rush that began since India beat Australia in Ahmedabad.
‘‘We could not get any bookings in Chandigarh or Mohali. The room we got was at a resort nearly 25km from the stadium. But we don't mind as long as we can enjoy the excitement of the match in the stadium,'' said a Gurgaon-based businessman, Rohan Gupta.
Satish Sharma, deputy general manager of Hotel Park View, said 430 rooms of Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation's three hotels have already been booked till March 31.
‘‘While around 100 rooms have been booked by regular customers, the remaining have been booked by cricket lovers from other cities and abroad,'' said Sharma.
The situation is similar at Hotel Taj where the two teams would be staying. Nearly 70% of the rooms available for general visitors had been booked two months ahead of the start of World Cup in February.
Said sales and marketing head Saera Dhir: ‘‘We are full over the next five days. For the last one week, we have been politely declining requests from at least 50 clients every day.''
