Nagaland: State-owned hotels running at a loss

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Oct. 29 (EMN): The Committee on Public Undertakings (Copu) headed by MLA Mhathung Yanthan on Friday said that the state-owned hotels are running at a loss of INR 1.80 core currently.

The grant-in-aid of INR 1.92 crore provided by the state government to the Nagaland Hotels Ltd. (NHL) is considered loss, he told journalists after inspecting Hotel Japfu in Kohima on Friday.

There are two functional government or state-run hotels under NHL — Hotel Japfu in Kohima and Hotel Saramati in Dimapur.

The committee led by Yanthan, who is also the advisor of Horticulture and Border Affairs, on Friday inspected the two hotels as well as the Agro and Food Processing Special Economic Zone at Ganeshnagar in Dimapur district.

“We are here to see how these hotels are run and also to suggest measures for improvement,” he said, adding that the inspection was to understand the functioning of the hotels.

Hotel Japfu, which was established in the 1980s, is “very old now” and it is quite challenging for the management to run such a hotel, but but it is maintained well, he said.

“There is still room for improvement and we (have) advised the hotel management to run it efficiently and profitably,” Yanthan said.

The Public Accounts Committee had observed in its report tabled during the budget session that no concrete result-oriented strategies have been attempted by the concerned department despite constructive recommendations by the successive committees over the years to initiate measures to redress the overall losses incurred by NHL.

‘Delving into all those issues, the committee is taking up with the department concerned. It is also to ensure that the department takes care of whatever shortcomings are there,’ he said.

The committee further ensured that recommendations will be made for better management of the public undertakings based on its observation.

The committee’s recommendations will be tabled during the Nagaland Legislative Assembly session.

Yanthan was accompanied by Copu members MLA Bongkhao Konyak; Nagaland Assembly Commissioner and Secretary, Dr PJ Anthony; Commissioner and Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Kekhrievor Kevichusa and others.