Nod for appointing Consultant for inviting bids for Wildflower Hall

Himachal Government has appointed a Consultant to prepare the bid documents for leasing out the Hotel Wildflower Hall, which the state government has got back after a decade long legal battle.

The state government is keen to rope in some big name in the hospitality industry to lease out the prime property, which is presently being run by the Oberoi Group as a world class high-end resort. The Cabinet, at its meeting held on February 15, gave approval for hiring of the Consultant for preparing the documents for inviting bids.

The Himachal Government and the East India Hotels Ltd (EIHL) have been engaged in a bitter legal dispute for almost two decade over control and profit sharing of the colonial era hotel. The century-old property, initially built by Lord Kitchener during the British Raj, is spread over 100 acres, amidst dense deodar forest, atop a hill, 12 km from here.

Even though the state government had expressed its willingness to consider the claim of Oberoi Group for running the property, it felt that the company should compete with other chain of hotels to get the lease of the Wild Flower Hotel. “At one point of time there was pressure from the EIHL to negotiate with them for running the hotel but the majority view within the government was that the hotel be leased out only after inviting global bids. It is only through competitive bidding that the state government can get the best deal,” admitted a senor bureaucrat.

It was on November 17, 2023 that the High Court had ordered transfer of the property to the state government. Later, in January 2024, the High Court rejected the review petition filed by East India Hotels (EIH), upholding the order for return of the hotel to the Himachal Government.

Built by Lord Kitchener in 1902, Hotel Wildflower Hall was being run as a high-end hotel by the HP Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) before it was gutted in a devastating fire in 1993. It was then that the state government floated global tenders for running it as a five-star property. It was handed over to the EIHL for being run by way of a joint venture, ‘Mashobra Resorts Limited’.

With irritants cropping up every now and then, the government issued an order on March 6, 2002, terminating the agreement on grounds of “breach of terms”. What followed was a legal battle and the Arbitrator finally gave an award in favour of the Himachal Government, which was challenged in the High Court by the EIHL.

Eventually, the High Court even dismissed the review petition filed by EIHL against the earlier order of handing over the property to the Himachal Government.