CALCUTTA, MAR 3: Ajit Kerkar and Satish Kumar, veteran hoteliers and former presidents of the Federation of Hotel & Restaurants Association of India, are among the bidders for the government-owned Great Eastern Hotel in Calcutta.The West Bengal government had advertised in January this year seeking partners to run the once-renowned hotel as a joint venture.Top sources told The Indian Express that Kerkar and Kumar have decided to join hands with the major hotel chains that have already shown interest in the 160-year hotel.Accor Asia Pacific has put in a formal bid and the name of the Hyatt chain is also being mentioned in the context. Three bids were received in the first round of bidding that closed on February 12. These parties will have to put in a financial bid with an earnest money of Rs 1 lakh by May 12.Kerkar had been with the Taj Group of Hotels and is widely credited for the emergence of the group as a nationwide chain of five star deluxe hotels. He had to quit the group after hedeveloped differences with the Tatas.Kerkar, who is now a director of Cox & Kings India, could not be contacted as he was out of Mumbai. His son Peter Kerkar, also a director of Cox & Kings, denied knowledge of any bid for Great Eastern and said he was not even aware of the hotel's existence.Satish Kumar had been with the Oberoi group for a long time, rising through the ranks before shifting to Hotel Hindusthan International in Calcutta.West Bengal's tourism minister, Manab Mukherjee, and two top officials of his department were not available for comment as they were leaving for Berlin. Other officers of the department were at the airport for the minister's departure.However, a senior state government bureaucrat connected with the management of the hotel confirmed that Kerkar and Kumar have bid for the hotel in association with other groups.Great Eastern Hotel was started in 1940 by D Wilson & Co, which had acquired the imposing building at 1 Old Court House Street from another company. Itstarted of as Wilson's hotel and later was renamed The Auckland Hotel in the same year. The hotel was renamed Great Eastern Hotel much later.The management of the hotel was taken over by the state government in 1975 and thereafter the land and property was taken over by an Act of the Legislative Assembly in 1980.The state had to give up a bid to privatise the hotel in 1995 when it was opposed by the Intuc-affiliated Great Eastern Hotel Staff & Workers Association, the dominant trade union of the hotel.
