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End of an era: Great Eastern changes hands

The legendary Kolkata hotel has hosted the likes of Mark Twain and Frank Worrel apart from Queen Elizabeth II.

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KOLKATA: One of old Calcutta’s grand old ladies recently passed on into the hands of her new fangled suitor. Patronized by the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers and Mark Twain and once called the Savoy of the East, 90% of the beleaguered hotel’s stake has just been divested to Lalit Suri-run Bharat Hotels after a prolonged bidding process.

The privatization in the bastion of the left, had eyes riveted given that the same leftists raised the banner of revolt every time the UPA government even talked of strategic minority sale of stake in PSUs.

The deal for the 175 year old hotel was bagged for Rs 52 crore. Suri will take possession of the 211-room four star hotel on November 30th and start a massive restructuring exercise that will cost the Delhi-based hospitality major Rs 120 crore which, Suri said, he will fund through internal accruals and bank borrowings. A team of architects, interior designers and servicing professionals will be pressed into service immediately after the new owner checks in.

The hotel has been dubbed a heritage property by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and, thus, Suri will not be able to make any changes to the façade. But, years of neglect and the continuous stream of heavy traffic have caused enough damage which will have to be addressed.

“I want to upgrade it to a five-star deluxe property and increase the number of rooms to 250,” Suri told DNA just after reaching Delhi from London on Friday. “I am also eying additional parking space opposite Writers’ Buildings, but will have to talk to the state government on this,” Suri informed.

Suri also said he will bring back the colonial branding on which the Great Eastern was sold. Its guest register read like the who’s who of the world at that point in time. From Queen Elizabeth’s retinue to Russian leaders like Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin, all had stayed here. In fact, the story goes, Mark Twain always wanted his favourite suite whenever he visited Kolkata. The Eden Gardens being a stone’s throw away, visiting cricket teams were also regularly put up at the Great Eastern.

The legendary West Indian team led by Frank Worrel and greats like Sobers, Conrad Hunt, Lance Gibbs and Rohan Kanhai were put up at the hotel. Great Eastern was also the official caterer of the Eden Garden Club House in those days.

The history of Great Eastern was set rolling by one David Wilson who set up a confectionary shop and later converted it into a hotel. When he left India in 1861, the hotel was variously referred to as Wilson’s Family Hotel, Great Eastern Hotel Wine &

Purveying Co and was finally christened in 1915. In 1961, it hosted Queen Elizabeth II and her entourage and this could well be called the curtains for it before Naxalite terror started to spread and the hotel started to epitomise the worst of capitalistic decadent culture.

But the privatization of Great Eastern is not without its share of controversies.

The CPI (M) has been eying the entire disinvestment scenario with a double vision. The CMP of the UPA government has articulated that no profit-making PSUs can be sold off. But the CPI (M)-ruled Left Front government in West Bengal does not have a CMP to adhere to.

The CPI (M), which had snipped the 10% divestment in BHEL, transferred 90% of its stake in the hotel to the highest bidder. More significantly, the party has been silent on the fact that none of the 400 employees of the century-old hotel are yet to receive a single paise against the early separation scheme (ESS) they had opted for.

Sources in the state tourism department, that has administrative control of the hotel, said no deadline has been fixed for making payments to the employees.

“The CPI (M) in Delhi is opposed to even a minority strategic sale of shares in public sector undertakings. But the Great Eastern’s case is an instance of downright privatization where the controlling stake is being sold out,” said a political analyst.

“The Left had opposed the strategic stake sale in BHEL because it did not figure in the CMP. In West Bengal, there is no CMP and thus the privatization is a politically correct move for the CPI (M) here,” added the analyst, tongue firmly in cheek.

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