173 years on,Auckland Hotel is reborn Lalit Great Eastern Hotel

“Great Eastern was popular,is popular and will remain popular,” Mamata said,addressing a gathering comprising several of her cabinet colleagues,eminent stars from Tollywood and diplomats.

Mamata said it was good to see that many new hotels were coming up in Kolkata,which indicated more visitors were coming here from outside the state and abroad.

Chairperson of Lalit Suri Hospitality Group,Jyotsna Suri,however,said the hotel had immense historic value due to its heritage status and was reopened today to coincide with the birth anniversary of her husband who passed away in 2006.

“We are yet to get some more licences and we hope to open the (new wing of ) hotel for the general public in three week’s time,” Jyotsana said.

She said it will take another six months to open the Heritage block,which is still under renovation.

The Lalit Suri group had acquired the property from the then Left Front government in 2005 for Rs 52 crore. Jyotsana said her company has already invested Rs 300 crore to renovate the hotel that was called ‘Jewel of the East’ during the British Raj and was host to guests like Queen Elizabeth II,Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain.