The Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s mayoral council on Monday passed a resolution to ratify an agreement between the civic body and the Park hotels, which will pave the way for the group to go ahead with its plans to build a hotel and shopping arcade on a 3.5-acre plot along EM Bypass.
According to the agreement, Park will pay the KMC Rs 43 crore as pending property tax. Once the payment is made, the group will be able to submit plans to the KMC for construction on the plot.
Sources in the civic body said that the two sides had been locked in a dispute for over a decade since the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Limited challenged the basis of property tax calculation by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
“They have promised to pay the tax. Once they pay it, they can move ahead with their plans. We will look into proposals sent by them,” mayor Firhad Hakim told The Telegraph on Monday.
Vijay Dewan, managing director, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd, said in a written statement: “We are in business in West Bengal for over 6 decades and are committed to the development of tourism and industry in the state. At present, we have 3 hotel properties and 60 outlets of Flurys in West Bengal and we are further collaborating on various projects with the department of tourism, Hidco, the KMDA and KMC.”
KMC officials said the dispute delayed plans that the hotel group had regarding the plot. “They, too, were suffering because they had spent a lot of money to buy the plot,” said an official. A KMC official said Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels Limited had purchased the 3.5-acre plot in 2009 for Rs 135 crore.
According to the official, the plot — 900 EM Bypass — is located close to Science City.
The KMC had told the group that the land would be taken back from it if it did not start construction there, said a senior official of the civic body.
“We told them that they have to start construction because the plot has been lying vacant for many years,” the official said. But it was not possible to start the construction before the dispute over tax was resolved. “Naturally, they, too, did not want to invest further in something that was embroiled in a dispute,” said the official.
Sources in the civic body said the group was given the plot for the construction of a hotel. According to its initial plan, Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels Limited wanted to build a hotel, service apartments and a shopping arcade on the land. “More details will be known only when they submit a building plan,” said one official.