Govt initiates transfer of ITDC hotels to state govts

As part of disinvestment in state-run ITDC hotels, government has initiated the process of transferring four such properties to state governments, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Hotel Lalitha Mahal Palace (Mysore) will be transferred to Karnataka government, Hotel Jaipur Ashok to Rajasthan, Hotel Lake View Ashok (Bhopal) to Madhya Pradesh and Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok (Guwahati) to Assam government, Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply.
Apart from these hotels, he said the government has decided to lease out or sell Hotel Kalinga Ashok (Bhubaneswar).
Sharma, however, did not specify the quantum of money the government expects to raise through such process.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), a public sector firm under Tourism Ministry, currently runs 16 hotels in Delhi, Patna, Jammu, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Bhopal, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Guwahati, Mysore, Puducherry and Itanagar.
During NDA's first stint in power between 1999 and 2004, the then Vajpayee government had divested its stakes in 18 ITDC hotels, bringing down the number of state-run hotels from 34 to 16.