SHILLONG, Jan 29: The Meghalaya government has asked the new contractor of the proposed five-star hotel at Jail Road to complete the project by this year.
The project has been pending for years due to several issues.
“I have told the contractor that they must complete the project within this year by any means,” Urban Affairs Minister, Sniawbhalang Dhar said on Saturday.
The state Cabinet had last year scrapped the previous agreement signed with HM Cements for the Marriott Hotel and inked a fresh 30-year deal with Maxim Infrastructure & Real Estate Pvt Ltd for completing the project.
Dhar said there are a few minor issues and modifications are needed in the agreement with the construction firm.
According to the terms and conditions of the new deal, the project has to be ready by October 2022.
Once the work is done, the Marriott Group may operate the hotel on a trial basis for a few months before throwing it open for guests.
HM Cements was to have completed the construction of the hotel within 27 months of starting the work in 2010-11 when the Urban Affairs Department provided the land on lease for 30 years under public-private partnership mode.
But the company defaulted on the loan repayment. The National Company Law Tribunal subsequently took over the project, which Maxim Infrastructure got through a bidding process.
The agreement with Maxim was tweaked to remove a clause that the office of the Shillong Municipal Board would be housed on the hotel premises. This was done because the government had allocated a plot of land at Bivar Road for the board’s permanent office.
The upcoming hotel will have about 200 rooms with state-of-the-art facilities.
