The national capital will witness the auction of three premium hotels very soon, that includes the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel. This after the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMDC) has put up the hotel along with two other premium hotels, Hotel Connaught and Hotel Asian, on auction for a period of 33 years on a licence basis. As per The Times of India, the minimum reserve price for Taj Mansingh has been kept at Rs 32.2 crores whereas for that of Hotel Connaught and Asian Hotel is Rs 49 lakh and Rs 9.9 lakh respectively. The auctioning of the three hotels was decided by the NDMC in September after a council meeting presided over by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. The auction was earlier slated for September end this year, but now, as reports will take place on January 30. As per norms, the council has to revise the licence fee after the licence period of 33 years.
The decision to auction Taj Mansingh was taken after the end of a six-year-long battle between NDMC and Tata Group. Although the road for the auction was cleared in 2015, no action was taken as the NDMC was entangled in a legal battle with Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL). As per the report, NDMC vice chairman Karan Singh Tanwar said the hotels are properties of the council and were given on lease, the expiry of which led to a legal battle with the owners as the council wanted to put up the hotels for auction. Tanwar said that the company’s (IHCL) plea was dismissed last year after it moved the Supreme Court. “The court asked us to review our decision and we decided to auction the hotel,” Tanwar added.
The licence of Taj Mansingh expired in 2011, after which the lessee got several extensions. As per the NDMC, the minimum reserve price for bidders has been decided as 17.25% of the gross revenue of the hotel. Some serious bidding is expected for the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel located in Delhi’s prime location Lutyens. The luxury hotel has been operated by Indian Hotels for 39 years.
Hotel Asian was put up for auction in January and it fetched Rs 45 lakh as the monthly licence fee. But, the deal couldn’t be signed between the council and the bidder leading to a fresh auction now. The lease of Hotel Asian expired in 2007 after which it the owner got a temporary extension. In May 2016 NDMC had sealed Hotel Connaught whose lease had been terminated in 1995 after it was found to be violating the terms of the lease.