State-owned Ruposhi Bangla Hotel is yet to start physical renovation of the hotel and is set to missing the November schedule as it has failed to finish the tendering process for the work, said officials. RB officials said the reopening of the hotel might also be delayed by couple of months as the management missed asset disposal deadline of October. The renovation is taking place as part of a 30-year management deal signed in February 2012 between its owner, state-run Bangladesh Services Limited, and Intercontinental Hotels Group.
The hotel remained closed since September 1 for the 16-month renovation project.
‘The first phase of the physical renovation work was scheduled in November but the management is yet to complete the tender process for the work,’ a senior RB official told New Age on Wednesday.
He said that the delay in work process might lead to rescheduling the January 2016 reopening deadline.
‘We are yet to finalise the tendering of the strip-out phase. The contract awarding and completing the asset disposal might take few more months. So the reopening deadline might also be delayed,’ he said.
He also said the hotel also missed the October schedule to finish the asset disposal work.
Asked, RB manager (marketing and communication) Sahidus Sadiq told New Age that all the paper work of asset disposal was completed.
‘We have completed necessary paper work for asset disposal and the physical execution of the work has also been completed partially. I hope the rest of it will be completed soon,’ he said.
He said that a large number of assets were going to orphanage as charity and some were going to the sister concerns of RB.
Asked about the delay in physical renovation work, Sahidus said, ‘After some tendering formalities we will begin the physical renovation work soon.’
Asked if the slow work progress will delay the reopening of the hotel, he said, ‘Not necessarily, we have mechanism to speed up the process.’
The Intercontinental Hotel Group earlier had run the historical hotel from 1966 to 1983.
After the renovation, Intercontinental Dhaka will have 231 guest rooms instead of the existing 300 with some other added benefits.
In late 1983, Sheraton, owned by Starwood, took over its operations and management for the next 25 years.
The agreement with Sheraton was extended to April 30, 2011 until Starwood and BSL disagreed over renovation issues.
After that the BSL took over its operations and named the hotel Ruposhi Bangla.
BSL made Tk 19.15 crore in profit from Ruposhi Bangla in 2013. The figure was Tk 46.51 crore in 2012 and Tk 40.12 crore in 2011.
-With New Age input
