Guwahati: The iconic Brahmaputra Ashok hotel on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in the heart of Guwahati city will close down permanently at the end of this month, ostensibly due to losses incurred even when the state government, its departments and its ministers themselves own crores of rupees in pending bills to the hotel.
The hotel, which was set up in 1987 jointly by ITDC and Assam tourism department, will shut down operations from August 31 next, as per a decision of Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), which had taken over the running of the hotel after the Central Cabinet had decided for disinvestment in three ITDC hotels at Guwahati, Bhopal and New Delhi.
The ATDC, after checking the accounts and functioning of the hotel, decided to close it down, purportedly as it was running in loss. A report prepared by the hotel management recently, however, pointed that Rs 2.36 crore was lying as unpaid bills, with government departments owning most of it. The bulk share of over Rs 2 crore was due for catering in the 33rd National Games, held in the city in 2007, over which an arbitration case is going on. The Chief Minister’s Secretariat has outstanding bills to the tune of Rs 20.42 lakh, while the Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner’s office has around Rs 22.44 lakh unpaid bills. Among others are All Assam Students Union (Rs 2.31 lakh), Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd (Rs 4.14 lakh), ASEAN Car Rally, 2012 (Rs 13.50 lakh), Director, Sports & Youth Welfare, Assam, (Rs 11.12 lakh), and General Administration Department (Rs 13.65 lakh). The Director, Tourism, Assam, owes Rs 9.13 lakh, while the current state Tourism Minister also has an unpaid bill of Rs 34,900 in his personal name. As per a hotel source, in 2011, the hotel was at a no-profit and no-loss state. In 2012-13, there was an operational profit of Rs 35 lakh, and in the following year it went up to Rs 55 lakh. However, after big private hotels came up in the city, the business went down, with even government functions also shifted to the private hotels. The hotel has an operational expenditure of around Rs 30 lakh every month. While over 50 permanent staff of the hotel have been given benefits under a Voluntary Retirement Scheme, the nearly 50 other contractual staff have been left high and dry. The hotel will now be converted into a convention hall and state guest house, as the two existing state guest houses are occupied by the incumbent chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, and the other by his predecessor, Tarun Gogoi. (UNI)
