The Jharkhand government and the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in presence of Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday as a part to take over Hotel Ashok in Ranchi. As per the provisions of the MoU, the ITDC will sell its 51% stake to the Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC).
The hotel was set up as a joint venture between the ITDC and the BTDC with a share ratio of 51:49. After the formation of Jharkhand in 2000, ITDC retained its 51% stakes and the rest was split between Bihar and Jharkhand on a 37:12 ratio. Jharkhand’s share in the hotel now will increase to 63.25%. The MoU was signed by ITDC Director Piyush Tiwari and JTDC Director A Dodde.
Hemant Soren after the MoU was signed said, “It is a major initiative and there are many areas that need development, tourism being one of them. It also has the potential to create a large number of employment opportunities,”.
The Chief Minister added that despite having all that was required to become a global tourist hotspot, the state had failed to achieve much on that front.
He further said, “Moving away from big-ticket MoU ceremonies for mines and minerals, which has been the norm in this state so far, this MoU is different to acquire a hotel, which stood for years on our land, but we didn’t have its ownership. We have taken a strategic decision to not leave any of our assets on our land from henceforth,” he said.
Pooja Singhal, Secretary of the Department of Tourism, said that talks are on with the Bihar Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) to buy its 36.75% share in the hotel.
The hotel stopped operations in March 2018 owing to a lack of patronage and clash of interests between both states. The state tourism department, after the Hemant Soren government came to power, re-initiated steps to take over the hotel following a proposal by the Union government under its disinvestment plan.
Jharkhand Government wants to revive the fortunes of this loss-making entity spread over 3 acres in Ranchi’s prime location of Doranda.
