SHIMLA, Sept 30: The historic Peterhoff Complex is back with Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation to be run as a professionally manned hotel. The state government had spent over Rs 7 crore to renovate and re-design it.The complex, comprising 35 luxurious centrally heated rooms, massive darbar hall-cum-conference room, restaurant, coffee shop, indoor sports room and beautiful lawns outside, was earlier being manned by state government's Hospitality and Protocol Department as state guest-house. For a few days, during the President's rule the complex was also converted to Raj Bhawan.Decision to hand-over the complex to HPTDC was taken a few days back, when Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had restored even the erstwhile Kashmir House complex of Dharamsala to the HPTDC.The Peterhoff Complex, like Kashmir House had also functioned as a hotel of HPTDC for sometime on completion of its first phase and before it was made a state guest house.The complex had housed at least seven viceroys And governor generals during the British Raj. The first viceroy, who had moved into the complex was Earl of Algin on April 4, 1863.Peterhoff then belonged to general Innes and it was sold from the estate to the Maharaja of Sirmaur for seven years. Eventually, the imperial government acquired the property in 1880.After Independence the building served as Punjab High Court and it was here that the trial of Nathu Ram Godse took place in 1948-49. When Himachal Pradesh became full fledged state in 1971, the building became the Raj Bhawan. Unfortunately, the complex was damaged by a fire on January 12, 1981 and was again restructured in 1991.The Peterhoff Complex had been designed to match the hill architecture's palatial pattern. The sprawling complex spread over an area of 96,300 sq ft, which includes the hotel complex, lawn, and a glass house, is located close to the Viceregal Lodge. A mini-bird park and green house which has rare species and varieties of birds and Himalayan flora, respectively, are also located nearby.The state government would keep 10 rooms for its use as state guest house and for this catering and bookings will be handled by HPTDC itself. The room rents finalised by HPTDC ranges between Rs 700 and Rs 1,200 per night depending upon the category of the suits.
