GUWAHATI, Sept 11 - The State government will float a fresh �Expression of Interest� (EOI) in search of hotels in Guwahati, where the Kamrup Metro district administration will accommodate government guests. Recently the government had issued an EOI in regard to the matter, but the State finance department cancelled it as some criteria were not mentioned in it.
The need to reserve some hotels in the city to accommodate government guests has arisen as the Guwahati Circuit House was demolished by the Public Works Department (PWD) to make way for a convention centre cum state guest house. For the same purpose the PWD has demolished the Hotel Brahmaputra Ashoka also.
According to sources, the State government had earned around Rs 7 lakh during the auction of various items of those two old buildings.
It is noteworthy that a hotel should have to fulfil some specific conditions regarding parking place, security arrangement, fire safety and standard of service to get a contract from the State government.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup Metro Biswajit Pegu, apart from the arrangement to book some hotels, the State government has already reserved ten rooms at Prasanti Tourist Lodge, Paltanbazar.
�The lodge has 18 rooms and we will reserve all those rooms if required in the coming days,� Pegu said.
The district administration has also carried out a cost-benefit analysis in connection with the matter, based on which preparation of a concept paper is under way. The new EOI will be published on the basis of the concept paper.
In January this year the State government had sanctioned a proposal with an estimated cost of Rs 259.4607 crore to build the convention centre and state guest house. The PWD (Building), which is the executing agency of the project, has in the meantime appointed M/s Shapoorji Pallonji Construction Pvt. Ltd to carry out the construction work. The State government has given a period of two years as the stipulated time for completion of the project.
According to a source at the PWD, the total site area of the project is 21,962.74 square metres and the proposed ground coverage area will be 7048 square metres. The total buildup area will be 50,530 square metres. The project will consist of a lawn area of 6,778.36 square metres.
The convention centre will consist of two halls each with a seating capacity for 200. There will be another two halls with 900 and 1500 seats. It will also have an exhibition space of 750 square metres, other public amenities, restaurant and office space.
The project will also have a circuit house block with 95 guest rooms, five suites along with a gymnasium, business centre, restaurant and multi-purpose hall.
The state guest house block will consist of 20 suites, four VVIP suites and one presidential suite along with a media briefing room, a media lounge and gymnasium. There will be a parking lot with the capacity to accommodate 500 vehicles at a time.
