The front-page report, “Taj Mansingh auction flops, Indian Hotels sole bidder” (June 8) by Ajay Modi, is truly revealing as it systematically lists the chronology of events and brings out very clearly that the fault lies squarely with the NDMC!
Right from the beginning, this idea of “auction” — after the expiry of 33 years lease period — was an ill-conceived one. Indian Hotels was doing a great job of running the hotel. They had indeed created an iconic property that has hosted several heads of state and other high dignitaries. They have had a clean record of dealings with the land owner and have never defaulted on payments or flinched from royalty payments as agreed. All that was needed was a negotiated settlement of the revised terms and this distinguished civic body would've saved crores wasted on preparation of pre-bid documents, bid documents, information dissemination, meetings, file movements, government approvals, court cases, lawyers' fees et al. Surely, the existing lessees would have been only too happy to sit across the table and close the issue in a couple of meetings. It would've saved them the avoidable seven years of uncertainty.
Then again, we come to the fundamental concept of "government has no business to be in business". NMDC is a civic agency and is not equipped to run a hotel. They were getting a decent 'rent' and could've easily bargained for a raise. The obnoxious conditions inserted by them in the bid document are just not pragmatic.
Krishan Kalra
Gurugram