SHILLONG, Nov 9: The construction of Meghalaya’s first five-star hotel at Jail Road in Shillong, which has been pending for several years, is likely to be completed by October next year.
Earlier this year, the state Cabinet had scrapped the previous agreement signed with the HM Cements for the construction of the Marriott hotel and inked a fresh 30-year agreement with Maxim Infrastructure & Real Estate Pvt. Ltd. for completing the project.
A government source informed The Shillong Times on Tuesday that according to the terms and conditions of the new deal, the project has to be ready by October 2022.
The source revealed the new firm has already started the pending work and it is confident of completing construction by October next year.
Once the construction is completed, the Marriott Group may operate the hotel on a trial basis for a few months before formally throwing it open for guests.
The construction began in 2010-2011 and the HM Cements was to have completed it within 27 months since getting the land from the Urban Affairs Department on lease for 30 years under public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
However, the company defaulted on payment of loan. Subsequently, the National Company Law Tribunal took over the project and the Maxim Infrastructure & Real Estate Pvt. Ltd. got the project through a bidding process.
A significant change in the agreement signed with Maxim Infrastructure is that the office of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) will no longer be housed within the hotel premises, as agreed upon with the HM Cements, since the government has already allocated a plot of land at Bivar Road for the construction of a permanent office of the SMB.
The upcoming hotel will have around 200 rooms with state-of-the-art facilities.