Non-performing ITDC hotels may be leased to private players: Minister

Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma has said that the government may consider leasing out non-performing Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) hotels to private players if attempts to revive them failed.

The input came at a meeting of the Union Minister with the ITDC officials here on Tuesday.
“We will try to revive hotels with some management problems but will have to lease out those with sticky problems. For example, Hotel Ashok at Jammu,” Sharma said.

Disinvestment of such hotels should be the last option, he added.

The Minister’s remark came at a time when many of the ITDC hotels are plagued with various problems even as the Corporation handed over Rs 3.73 crore as dividend for the financial year 2013-14 to the government showing improvement in its performance as compared to previous financial years.

Although the turnover of the Corporation increased by 6.57 per cent to Rs 470 crore approximately in 2013-14, many of the hotels run by it showed a significant loss in three consecutive fiscals in the past. While Ashok Hotel of the ITDC incurred a loss of Rs 10.27 crore in 2012-13, Hotel Jaipur posted a loss of Rs 4.01 crore in the same fiscal.

The union minister asked officials to make all efforts to revive the “ailing units or hotels” which required “a major change in work culture”.

He asked the ITDC officials to identify problems of the employees and draw up a time frame to remove the bottlenecks.