By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Crowbo-rough Hotel at Khyndailad is a symbol of failure and hopelessness for Meghalaya standing as it does at the most vantage point in the city. Crowborough is certainly one of the most delayed projects after the Shillong bypass.
The hotel, which was planned way back in the 1980s, is occupying 28,869 sq.ft. area and was leased out to a Lessly Shylla – a coal trader from Jaintia Hills, on May 28, 2008 for 33 years. The building does not show signs of completion and now the lease rent for the last four quarters is pending payment.
Confirming this to The Shillong Times, a source from the Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation Limited (MTDC) said that Shylla has not paid the lease rent + license fee for four quarters, March, June and September (2011) and the 1st quarter of 2012 which was due on February 10.
“We have pursued with Shylla this January regarding the lease rent but he has not replied so far,” said the source. A Board meeting was held in the recent past wherein it was decided to pursue issues relating to lease rent and completion of the hotel project, informed the source. As per the lease agreement between MTDC and Shylla the private developer is to complete the hotel within a year. But there is no sign of completion as yet.
The party sought for extension till November 2010 which was granted by the MTDC. This was further extended to November 2011. The source said that Shylla has not replied to their reminders and neither has he paid the lease rent.
The source said that if Shylla repeatedly defaults then the MTDC will have no other choice but to terminate the contract. In case of termination of contract the board will liquidate the security amount of one year lease rent. Secondly, since it is a BOT (Built Operate Transfer) project the infrastructure created so far is MTDC’s property.
On asking, how MTDC has allowed Shylla to be a defaulter for so many quarters the source said the matter will be decided in the next board meeting. “The next meeting is due in March perhaps after the budget session,” said the source adding if Shylla does not pay by then the Corporation will go into a loss.
Meghalaya has a bad record of delayed projects and those in responsible positions looking the other way. But these are public assets and Government has to be responsible for their failure to take off and yield revenue, said some discerning observers.
The Board of Directors MTDC who should be taking stock of this project seems unconcerned about what appears like another failed project. Knowledgeable sources say that even the manner in which the bids for the project were handled betrayed the Government’s keenness to give it to a particular bidder. “It seems that the Government was under pressure to give it to Lessly Shylla who is backed by a well known money bag from Jaintia Hills. Shylla is only a front,” say inside sources.
As per an RTI filed by this daily last year, it was revealed that the 104 room hotel will have 8 economy rooms, 58 standard rooms, 30 deluxe rooms, 5 suites, 100-seater coffee shop, 80- seater specialty (Indian / Multi-cuisine) restaurant, 50 seater bar, 35 seater lounge, disco, banquet hall, convention facilities with state of the art seating and projection facilities, smaller meeting and committee rooms, guest amenities like beauty parlour, health club with fully equipped gym, steam, sauna and massage facilities and car parking besides a shopping arcade with 56 shops. For the moment all these are in the realm of imagination.
Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) is the consultant that prepared the Detail Project Report. An agreement with regard to management consultancy services for the hotel’s renovation and refurbishment and thereafter its management and operations is by TK International Limited (TKIL) with which Shylla entered into a consortium agreement for 20 years.
As per the Expression of Interest (EOI) floated by IL&FS then, eight parties bid for the project out of which four were short-listed and Shylla was the highest bidder, who fulfilled the criteria and was awarded the project. But those in the hospitality business had said then that Shylla’s bid was far too high and not viable. Government, however did not seem to bother about all these finer technical and financial points.