[New Delhi]Hand Over Air India’s Ailing Hotel Corp India[HCI] to Tourism Ministry For Better Management
A parliamentary panel has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to “shed its inertia” in reviving Air India’s ailing subsidiary HCI and its flight catering unit Chefair or hand them over to the Tourism Ministry for better management.
In a report tabled in Parliament in the Monsoon session, the Committee on Petitions headed by BJP MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari also recommended working out of a “pragmatic” proposal to bring the wages and salaries of its employees, which have not been revised in the last nine years,
“In case the Ministry of Civil Aviation is not able to shed its inertia in the much-needed efforts towards the revival of Centaur Hotel+Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) and have conceded that running the hotels in the present times is not their expertise, the Committee feels that the entire fleet of hotels under their administrative control could be handed over to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in view of the fact that they have professional experience and expertise of successfully running the Ashoka Group of Hotels,” it said.
It recommended that the Civil Aviation Ministry should also explore the possibility of handing over the hotels to the Tourism Ministry or “running them in some form of collaboration with them for transforming them to profit-making ventures, especially keeping in view the overall welfare of the employees.”
The HCI’s losses stood at Rs 40.47 crore in 2013-14 as against Rs 35.62 crore in 2012-13.
The Committee was dealing with a detailed petition submitted by Javed Pandit, President of Centaur Hotel Employees Union, and Harish, Chairman of HCI Karamchari Union.