Himachal does a rethink, will now lease out just 6 of 14 properties

The uncertainty over the government decision to hand over 14 hotels of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) to private players has ended as only six of these properties will be leased out.

The decision to rope in private players for running these 14 loss-making units was taken by the Cabinet at its meeting on June 28 this year. However, HPTDC Chairman Raghubir Bali had expressed reservations, seeking a rethink on the issue. The online booking for these six hotels will be disabled from December 1 as these are likely to be handed over to private players.

“The online booking for six facilities — Hotel Hilltop (Swarghat), Hotel Baghal (Darlaghat) and Hotel Shiwalik (Parwanoo), all in Solan district, Giriganga Resort at Kharapathar (Shimla), Hotel Tourist Inn at Rajgarh (Sirmour) and Hotel Uhl at Jogindernagar (Mandi) — will be disabled from December 1,” said Rajiv Kumar, Managing Director, HPTDC.

Hotel Kashmir House at Dharamsala, which had figured in the list of 14 properties to be leased out, now houses the office of the HPTDC, which has been shifted from Shimla to Dharamsala.

The hotels which have been excluded from the list of 14 include Roscommon Old (Kasauli), Sarvari (Kullu), Apple Blossom (Fagu), Lakeview (Bilaspur), Mamleshwar (Chindi in Mandi), Chanshal (Rohru) and Wayside Amenity, Bhararighat (Solan).

The HPTDC had segregated its 56 hotels and restaurants into three categories — profitable, less profitable and loss-making units. A majority of the 14 HPTDC properties fell in the less profitable and loss-making category. One of these — Kashmir House in Dharamsala — has been converted into the office of the HPTDC after the shifting of the head office from the state capital to Kangra.

Employees of the HPTDC were up in arms against the move and met Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, seeking reversal of the Cabinet decision. Successive governments in the past deliberated upon privatising some of these loss-making hotels and restaurants, but with little success. As part of the experiment, some units, especially restaurants such as Lake View in Bilaspur, were leased out, but are now being run by the HPTDC.

Bali, on his part, said he was of the firm opinion that these properties, which included some which were incurring losses and some registering low profits could be turned into profitable units with a makeover. “If the HPTDC is provided funds and the properties, some of which are in a run-down condition, can be given a facelift, these can easily turn profitable,” he said.

A majority of the HPTDC hotels are located in vantage locations but are not doing good business, while private hotels, some of which are not located in not such good locations and are even smaller, are doing better.