RTDC’s panel finds violations by lessee of Jai Samand hotel

Jaipur: A committee formed to investigate the damages caused to the heritage structure and style of RTDC’s Jai Samand hotel near Udaipur has found several violations by the licencee.

In its report submitted on July 29, 2021, the committee said the unlawful construction was carried out without the permission of RTDC and in violation of the contract norms. The heritage hotel on the banks of Jai Samand lakewas was was leased out on a rent of Rs 10,000 per month. Along with the heritage hotel, three other properties including motels, guest houses of Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) were leased out to Epitome Destination by RTDC for a cumulative monthly rental fees of Rs 40,000.

The committee headed by Jitendra Joshi, executive engineer of RTDC, and Sunil Mathur, general manager of Hotel Kajri, another RTDC hotel, found that the lessee was constructing a water body inside the premises of the hotel which was not there earlier. Similarly, a wall inside the property was broken for fixing a lintel which is again in violation of the RTDC contract rules.

The heritage property was built with specialized materials. But the number of new construction activities carried out by the lessee do not conform to the style of the building or the materials used previously, the report said. “After demolishing certain parts of the building, cement was used for renovation whereas the earlier building materials used were lime and surkhi,” it said.

“Most importantly,” the report said, “The licencee never sought permission for these constructions nor RTDC approved any plan.” In a controversial decision, RTDC has given these properties on lease and there is no estimate on the basis of which the meagre monthly rental of Rs 40,000 was fixed. In fact, in an order on March 9, 2021, RTDC has arbitrarily fixed the monthly rental without the approval of the board of the corporation. Strangely, after fixing the monthly rental, RTDC issued another order on March 16, 2021 to form a committee to fix the rental taking into account the market rates and the operation. Since the order for the rental has already been issued and lease has been awarded, the committee’s decision will remain inconsequential. But so far, the committee has also not given any recommendations as to the rates.


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