The Hindu Business Line : Delhi Centaur occupancy picks up

The hotel is completely sold out right up to March. If we consider the fact that only about 220-240 rooms of the 376 existing room are available for sale, the hotel occupancy rate will climb even higher than 100 per cent.

New Delhi , Jan. 20

DESPITE the on-going disinvestment process the Delhi Centaur hotel is on course to show a financial turnaround with the property showing a 75 per cent occupancy rate for the first three months of the current calendar year.

Official sources told Business Line that several leading industrial houses apart from small and medium industries from the nearby Gurgoan area have again started utilising the hotel facilities. Besides, several international airlines crew, including some from the Far East and Gulf region, which had left the hotel have returned.

"The hotel is completely sold out right up to March. If we consider the fact that only about 220-240 rooms of the 376 existing room are available for sale, the hotel occupancy rate will climb even higher than 100 per cent," a senior hotel official said. Sources indicated that the airline crew that had again started staying at the hotel include Royal Nepal Airlines and a Korean airline apart from large corporate houses such as Maruti.

The Centaur hotel chain is part of the Hotel Corporation of India, (HCI) which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India (AI). HCI used to run five Centaur hotels including two in Mumbai and one each in Rajgir (Bihar) and Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the divestment of the Delhi property is all set to move ahead with the Information Memorandum scheduled to be circulated to the bidders in the next couple of days. The Government decision to divest Delhi Centaur and the Chefair flight kitchens in Mumbai and Delhi received 26 bids including 16 for the hotel property and 10 for the flight kitchen.

Sources said that the Rs 1 crore earnest money for bidding for the hotel and Rs 5 lakh earnest money for bidding for the flight kitchen that has been received from the bidders has already been deposited with AI.

Sources added that with the potential bidders being allowed to make use of the large unutilised areas in the properties being divested, the entire process is set to garner huge amounts of funds for the Government.

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