Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok to be State Guest House: Sarma

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 5: At long last, Dispur broke its silence on the fate of Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok on the floor of the State Assembly on Tuesday. The hotel will now be converted into a State Guest House that will have a State Conference Centre along with it.

The hotel was owned by Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and Dispur had a stake in it. However, of late Dispur bought the hotel from ITDC, leading to confusion on the fate of the hotel and its employees. It was hazy if Dispur is going to run the hotel on its own or hand it over to a private party.

It was Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque who raised a question on the fate of the hotel with a written question on the floor of the House on Tuesday.  In his reply to the question, State Tourism Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma put all speculations to rest and said: “The hotel will now be converted into a State Government’s Guest House. A State Conference Centre will also be attached with it. We paid Rs 2.14 crore to ITDC, besides the total amount which the hotel was to get from various parties till June 30, 2017.” When the Congress MLA wanted to know on the fate of the employees working in the hotel, the minister said without any frills that the government would act 'as per law'.  The hotel was to get huge amounts from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Kamrup (M) district administration, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and many other individuals and organizations.