Legendary Hotel Jammu Ashok shuts
Jammu Tawi, June 18: Perched on a Jammu hills overlooking the Tawi Valley and a calm witness to the social and political life of Jammu and Kashmir for half a century, the legendary Hotel Jammu Ashok has formally been shut.
A Government of India subsidiary, India Tourism Development Corporation, the current owner of the hotel, has ceased the operations and put out the closure notice. The closure of Jammu Ashok is a part of the longer disinvestment policy of the central government which set out the process of pulling out of the hotel business under the Vajpayee regime twenty years ago.
The Ashok Hotel in Jammu was an offshoot of the legendary hotel of similar name set up in New Delhi in 1956 as a project conceived and patronised by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The idea behind Ashok Hotel was to offer world-class hospitality to the world dignitaries visiting India. Rajiv Gandhi's wedding reception was also hosted by Indira Gandhi at Delhi Ashok. The Ashok Hotel later branched into a chain with properties in several Indian cities. Jammu has yet another strong connection with Ashok -Dr. Karan Singh, the scion of royal Dogra heritage, was one of the 25 initial investors long before the chain was taken over by the ITDC.
It was under GM Sadiq's government in 1970 that a piece of premium land along the highway to Kashmir, just across the Raj Bhawan and Hari Palace, was leased out for setting up Hotel Ashok in Jammu. The hotel was inaugurated in Jammu by Dr. Karan Singh while he was Union Minister for Tourism and Culture.
For decades the Ashok hosted a number of dignitaries including Prime Ministers and international visitors. The hotel was posting losses for a very long time and had lost its customers to more swanky branded hotels that have come up in Jammu over the last two decades.
Over three weeks ago, on May 27, the ITDC informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it was shutting down the Ashok in Jammu and handing over the entire property to Jammu and Kashmir government against amount after proper valuation.
Below is the statement of ITDC filed before BSE
It is informed that, Hotel Jammu Ashok which is one of the hotel units of ITDC was on the land leased out by the Government of J&K in 1970 for a period of 40 years. The lease expired in 2010 and ITDC had been following with the State Government for renewal of lease since the year 2007. ITDC had received a letter dated 20 .03.2020 from the Government informing non-renewal of lease in favour of ITDC. The matter was placed before the ITDC Board in its meeting held on 27.05.2020 and it was decided to do immediate closure of complete operations of the Hotel Jammu Ashok in view of unit incurring losses and offer VRS to the employees working in Hotel Jammu Ashok. Board also decided to request Govt. of J&K to take back the property along with building, plant and machinery and other assets and pay appropriate valuation amount towards these assets.
It may be mentioned here that in September 2018, the Modi government decided to transfer the incomplete hotel project, Gulmarg Ashok, to Jammu & Kashmir Government as part of its disinvestment policy.
In continuation of Center's disinvestment policy, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had then approved transfer of incomplete project of Hotel Gulmarg Ashok, Gulmarg, to the J&K government and Hotel Patliputra Ashok, Patna to Bihar, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said.
While explaining the Center's disinvestment policy the Minister had said in September 2018 that the government had been decided to “lease/sub-lease” the India Tourism Development Corporation Limited (ITDC) hotels/ properties/ units/Joint Ventures (JVs) jointly with the state governments and “where State governments were not agreeing to the proposal”, the properties may be returned to them at its officially valued price.
