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CCD approves sale of 5 ITDC hotels for Rs 1.69 billion

Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi

The government on Friday approved the sale of five hotels of ITDC, including Delhi-based Kanishka and Indraprastha (Yatri Niwas) for over Rs 1.69 billion, while clearing the transaction documents for NEPA.

Kanishka Hotel was bagged by Nehru Place Hotels promoted by the Eros Group for Rs 959.5 million against a reserve price of Rs 709 million, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment in New Delhi.

The Indraprastha property went to Moral Trading and Investment Ltd, a Mittal Group company for Rs 450.3 million against a reserve price of Rs 183 million, while the incomplete Chandigarh property was sold to Taj GVK combine for Rs 172.7 million.

Other hotel properties which were sold on Friday were Khajuraho Ashok and Varanasi Ashok, even as the bids for Ranjit were not opened.

The Lalit Suri-promoted Bharat Hotels bagged Khajuraho Ashok for Rs 22.1 million against a reserve price of Rs 20 million.

The CCD also approved the sale of Varanasi Ashok to Ramnath Hotels for a consideration o Rs 91.1 million which is above the reserve price of Rs 55 million.

"Due to the poor performance of its hotels, ITDC has not been able to provide the requisite funds for gratuity for its employees and consequently the liabilities have to be discharged substantially from the divestment proceeds," Shourie said.

In the case of Ranjit, bids were not opened owing to some issues relating to ground rent, and an Inter Ministerial Group has been formed to resolve the problem.

The CCD, which was scheduled to take up five items on Friday, also approved the transaction document for newsprint company NEPA, based in Madhya Pradesh, after resolving the issues relating to transfer of forest land, and the stage is now set for invitation of price bids.

NEPA was allotted about 1,500 acres of forest land by the Madhya Pradesh government, but the state government had transferred only 19 acres of land till date .

The state government would now execute transfer of 1,000 acres of land, while 500 acres of forest land would be returned.

The case of BIFR company Jessop, where Ruia-Coatex had earlier emerged as the highest bidder, was not taken up as the board on Thursday set July 18 as the date for hearing the parties.

The CCD, however, could not take up the item relating to divestment of Manganese Ore India Ltd as Steel Minister B K Tripathy could not attend the meeting.

Additional inputs: PTI

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