Taj Mansingh auction: NDMC seeks coal ministry's advice

Faced with the task of completing the auction of Hotel Taj Mansingh by June, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has written to the Coal Ministry seeking its advice on the holding of the exercise.
"Within NDMC, we do not have the capacity for holding an auction process of this complexity and hence we have sought the advice of the Coal Ministry, which has experience of auctioning coal blocks," NDMC Chairman Jalaj Srivastava said.
"The Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC), which recently conducted India's first e-auction for coal, had approached NDMC for organising the Taj auction.
"I have written to the Coal Ministry to find out about MSTC's credentials and what was the process adopted by the ministry to bring it on board," he said.

After the Union Home Ministry gave the go-ahead to NDMC for auctioning the Tata-run property, the civic body had granted an extension to Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) for operating the hotel till June, by which time it proposes to complete its auction of the property.
The property, owned by NDMC, was given to IHCL on lease for 33 years. The lease ended in 2011 and the company was given seven temporary extensions since then on various grounds. The current lease expires on June 30.

NDMC had invited bid process managers to assist it with the auction after the consultant for the project, Ernst and Young, pulled out in November last year. MSTC participated in the tender process to act as a transaction adviser for the auction.

"We want to ascertain their performance and requisite expertise in the recent coal block e-auction," Srivastava said.
Two years ago, when NDMC had decided to auction the property, IHCL had approached Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the process. However, the company had failed to get a stay on NDMC's proposal to auction the hotel.