After the Union Government privatised Air India, it has taken the decision to privatise one of India’s most iconic hotel, The Ashok, located barely a few hundred metres from the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi.
Union tourism ministry and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management are working together on the modalities on how to give the sprawling 25-acre property on a long lease of 90 years.
The hotel consists of 300-rooms, service apartments, a shopping mall, stand-alone restaurants, pubs, and an upmarket health club and leasing of The Ashok is expected to fetch the exchequer close to a billion dollars.
As per reports, the cabinet note is being prepared in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the sale will be completed by the end of this year.
Among the frontrunners who are planning to acquire this hotel is Mukesh Ambani and if that happens, it will become one of his prized possessions.
The Ashoka hotel came close very close to being sold during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government but union minister for tourism, Jagmohan, put his foot down and refused to sell it as part of the Vajpayee government’s commitment that it will not sell any profit-making government company.
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