Hope for 5-star hotel project brightens

SHILLONG, July 19: The five-star hotel project on the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) land at Jail Road is set to get a new lease of life.
The State Cabinet on Monday decided to scrap the earlier agreement for the five-star Marriott hotel project and ink a fresh 30-year agreement with Maxim Infrastructure & Real Estate Pvt Ltd for completing the project.
“The earlier party defaulted on the loan after which the National Company Law Tribunal took over the project. Maxim later got the project through a fair bidding process,” Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma told reporters.
The development requires the government to sign a new lease agreement with the new firm. Some terms and conditions were discussed with the firm ahead of the signing.
The discussion revolved around handing over the 71,000 sq. ft of land to the firm. It was learnt that the firm did not want to pay an outstanding due of Rs 2.5 crore of the first lessee to the state government. The latter did not agree to this but decided to provide some relaxation in the interest part and the timeframe to clear the due.
The conditions included an office of SMB that the firm would build on 20,000 sq. ft of land near the BSNL quarters.
Jail Road was supposed to sport the first five-star hotel in the city after the work on it began in 2010-11. But the project kept landing into controversies.