The cabinet has approved the closure of India Tourism Development Corporation’s (ITDC) Janpath hotel in the national capital and the property will now be used for setting up government offices. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has gave in-principle approval for the transfer of property of Hotel Janpath to the ministry of urban development.
“Hotel Janpath is located in a prime central location of the city. The property can be considered for construction of government offices and similar purposes which would save government funds spent in hiring of government offices,” an official statement said.
The decision to close down Hotel Janpath was taken by the government within a month of deciding to exit three ITDC hotels in Bhopal, Guwahati and Bharatpur. The Committee of Secretaries, under the Cabinet Secretary, will take a decision on details of implementation of the project and land use.
“The building of Hotel Janpath has to undergo major rehabilitation work since the building structure of Hotel Janpath has been found to be unserviceable, in distressed condition and deficit in the context of seismic requirements, according to the inspection report of IIT Roorkee,” the statement said.
The government has initiated the process of disinvestment of hotels/ properties of the ITD) as it feels that running and managing hotels on professional lines is not the work of the government or its entities.
As part of the disinvestment policy, it has been decided to lease/ sub-lease the hotels/ properties jointly with the states concerned or return the properties to them, after fair valuation. States would then have the option to upgrade and operate the hotels by involving the private sector or to utilise the properties as per their requirements.
In the first stage, it has been decided to disinvest three hotels – Hotel Lake View Ashok, Bhopal; Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok, Guwahati and Hotel Bharatpur Ashok.