Rlys rethinking its budget hotel plan

The Railway Ministry is now reconsidering its project for constructing 100 budget hotels across the country after allotting 20 sites to private players. With at least four of...

The Railway Ministry is now reconsidering its project for constructing 100 budget hotels across the country after allotting 20 sites to private players. With at least four of these hotels planned for Delhi, the move could potentially jeopardise plans to increase hotel rooms in the Capital in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Rail Bhavan officials said the rethink was prompted by the fact that this project may directly clash with their plan to develop 19 railway stations as world-class

stations.

Mandated with developing these “Rail Ratna” brand of budget hotels, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had selected the private players to refurbish four of the Railways’ existing hotels. The Taj Group had bagged the licence to refurbish and run the Rail Yatri Niwas at New Delhi for 15 years. Similarly, sites ranging from 570 sqm to 7386.5 sqm in 20 cities had been allotted to private players (see box). However, none of the private players have been given possession so far.

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“There is a rethinking on the policy on budget hotels,” confirmed Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s OSD Sudhir Kumar. “We have plans to convert some stations into world-class stations. If a portion of land is allotted to a private player to construct budget hotels at a particular station, it could lead to clash of interest when another players undertakes to develop that entire station into a world-class station,” Kumar added.

Simply put, Railways are worried as bigger players may have reservations on getting involved in the world-class stations project if chunks of land are already in possession of other players. Railway officials feel that it is only through commercial exploitation of land that a player developing a station into a world-class facility would be able to make some money.

So does this mean that the licences already awarded to private players could be cancelled? OSD Kumar declined to comment on that. The Railways’ decision to reconsider the plan has got the Tourism Ministry jittery too.

Hotels and Rail Yatri Niwas allotted to private players for 15 years

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• Rail Yatri Niwas, New Delhi — M/s Indian Hotels Company Ltd (The Taj Group)

• Rail Yatri Niwas Howra — M/s Hotel Meghalaya, Visakhapatnam

• BNR Puri and BNR Ranchi — M/s Sujata Hotels Pvt Ltd, Patna

Sites allotted for 30 years

• Darjeeling, New Jalpaiguri, Lagarh (Bikaner), Tirupathi, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Nagpur, Pune, Habibganj, Agra, Udaipur — M/s Zoom Royal Orchid Consortium, New Delhi

• Sealdah, Secunderabad, Madurai, Mumbai (Carnac Bunder), Vijayawada — Consortium of GL Hotels and Pan India Paryatan, Mumbai

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• Ooty, Rameswaram, Jaisalmer, Kanyakumari — M/s Signet Hotels Consortium, Mumbai

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