'Renovation of HCI projects need fresh impetus'

Government should give "fresh impetus" to ensure timely completion of renovation projects related to Hotel Corporation of India Ltd (HCIL), which is making efforts to increase its revenues, a Parliamentary panel has suggested.
The suggestion has been made by the Committee on Petitions, chaired by BJP member Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in a report submitted to Parliament earlier this month.
HCIL comes under the Civil Aviation Ministry, which among others is to infuse Rs 35.29 crore for repair and renovation of the company's properties in the national capital and Srinagar. It is wholly-owned by Air India.
To transform the Centaur Lake View Hotel, Srinagar/ HCIL, Delhi into a profit-making, self-sustaining entity, the panel stressed on the urgent need to meticulously calibrate the existing mechanism of review, monitoring and control of all activities connected with the renovation and repair.

"A fresh impetus is, therefore, required to be given to various renovation projects initiated by the Ministry way back in the year 2013 through accurate activity mapping and timely completion," it noted.
Further, the panel observed that HCIL is making efforts to improve its revenue, primarily by way of handling more flights by the HCIL Chefair units at Delhi and Mumbai and offering rooms in Hotel Centaur on long term basis.

Air India has given some part of its flight kitchen business to Chefair.
Modalities should be worked out to diversify the business of Chefair units on the lines of railway catering by exploring the possibility of providing such services to other government organisations in the metropolitan cities, the panel said.

With regard to wage revision for unionised category of employees of Centaur Lake View Hotel, Srinagar, the committee said it expects the Ministry to come out with a workable scheme to reasonably increase the wages.
"The Ministry should be proactive in exploring the options of letting out rooms of Centaur Hotel for office purposes to different organisations/ departments, etc, to make it financially viable and self-sustainable," the report said.