At your service: Relief for HP govt, HC stays order on closure of 18 HPTDC hotels till March

shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), facing closure of 18 underperforming properties, received a reprieve on Monday as a division bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court stayed the single bench’s order setting out a firm deadline for the closure of these loss-making hotels by November 25.

Even as the bench later relaxed the deadline for nine premier hotels including the iconic Chail Palace – a 1891 property of erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala – but others were supposed to shut today.

A division bench comprising Justices Vivek Singh Thakur and Rakesh Kanithla, which heard the matter relating to closure of the hotels, granted stay on the single bench order allowing all the 18 hotels to remain functional till March 31, 2025. Senior officials of the HPTDC said the hotels had already received advance booking for various events including weddings and other functions, putting the corporation in a tight spot over the implementation of the order.

There was also panic among the staff about their jobs and services.

Before the division bench, the HPTDC gave an assurance that arrears of the pensions for retired employees and their pending dues will be cleared in a phased manner.

Meanwhile, HPTDC chairman RS Bali said the government was working on a comprehensive plan to improve commercial efficiency of the hotels and already a committee has been set up to look into this important aspect.

The report of the one-man committee headed by Tarun Shridhar, a Himachal cadre IAS officer, has already submitted the report to the government.