Taj Mansingh Hotel in Delhi to be auctioned
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) decided to auction the Taj Mansingh Hotel and also have cancelled the licence of Le Meridien. These two decisions have been pending for a while.
The announcement was made by the member of a council of NDMC and Delhi Chief Minister Mr Arvind Kejriwal following a special meeting of its top decision-making body.
Mr Kejriwal tweeted, “Important decisions at NDMC meeting-open auction of Taj Mansingh, cancel Le Meridian Hotel license, 240 days TMR (Temporary Muster Roll) every yr 2 all death cases (sic)”.
Indian Hotels Company Ltd of Tata Group had moved the Supreme Court Against a Delhi High Court order which allowed NDMC to auction the Taj Hotel arguing there was no need to do it as it generates good revenue for the civic body, last November.
On the other hand, Le Meridien’s licence fee has been a bone of contention with allegations of irregularities against the civic body in a recovery of the licence fee from the 5-star property located in the city’s Lutyens’ Zone. NDMC has hiked the license fee of Le meridian to over Rs. 3 crores last year.
It is alleged that NDMC officials allowed a settlement of pending licence fee dues towards the civic body by the hotel by accepting a one-time fee of over Rs. 150 crores which allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs. 400 crore to the exchequer.