The Lalit Great Eastern Hotel (Kolkata)

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  supe

  THE Great Eastern Hotel of Kolkata, one of the oldest hotels in the country, appears all set to change hands as a result of the West Bengal Left Front government's larger effort to restructure loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs). There is little existing record of its ups and downs through the passage of time. If the walls of this landmark site on the map of Kolkata could talk, the tale would indeed be a fascinating one. In its 165 years it has seen many changes - from a time when bullock carts and horse-drawn carriages rolled along the wide half-empty streets outside its premises, to the present-day congestion and pollution that darkens its white façade; from the days of opulence bordering on vulgar ostentation to its present condition that turns away respectable people. It has been a part of Kolkata's history for nearly half the city's life. In this period it has changed hands many a time. Now, once again, it is entering a new phase, with the State government clearing the process of its sale to private owners. It all started when David Wilson, an Englishman who owned a confectionery shop in Cossitola, now Bentinck Street, decided to enter the hotel business. In 1840, Dainty Davie, as he was popularly known, set up the Auckland Hotel on the premises in the corner of the road running parallel to the British India Street and the Old Court House Street. The hotel was named not after its proprietor, but the Governor General at that time, Lord Auckland (1784-1849). But locally, the hotel was known as Wilson's Hotel. After nearly 15 years since its inception, on September 10, 1865, the hotel was floated as a company called the Great Eastern Hotel Wine and General Purveying Co. and was registered with limited liability under Act XIX of 1857 of the Legislative Council of India. Two years later, the management of the hotel took a landmark decision and inducted Peary Chand Mitter, more popularly known by his pen name Teck Chand Thakur (1814-1883), an eminent author and member of the British India Association's board of directors. Even W.C. Bonerjee, the first Indian president of the Indian National Congress, held shares worth Rs.5,000 in the company during 1890-1896. The hotel continued to grow in popularity and all through maintained its social exclusiveness. Its exterior style and ornamentation matched its interior elegance, and it became the favourite haunt of the city's elite. Newspapers of those days reported in detail the lavish parties inside, as Great Eastern became the nucleus of high society activities. By 1883, the entire premises of the hotel were electrified. It was probably the first hotel in the country to be illuminated by electric lights. So exalted was its reputation, that for a while, the hotel was even referred to as the `Jewel of the East'. THE decline started in the early 1970s, when bickering among the partners led to a financial crisis. As the hotel was tottering on the brink of closure, the Congress (I) government of West Bengal under Siddhartha Shankar Ray took over the management of the hotel through the Great Eastern Hotel (Taking over of Management) Act, 1975. The degeneration continued, until the Left Front government tried in vain to arrest it by nationalising it on July 17, 1980 under the Great Eastern Hotel (Acquisition of Undertaking) Act, 1980. The management was vested in the Great Eastern Hotel Authority, a statutory body comprising representatives of the Government of West Bengal. After more than 30 years, the Great Eastern Hotel will once again fall in the hands of private owners. This is not the first time that it has been under the auctioneer's hammer; the idea of privatising it surfaced as early as 1994, but owing to union pressure and many other reasons, the sale was stalled. This time, however, it might well and truly be off the back of the State government. But there is another aspect that has to be considered before the final sale. The hotel building has been marked as having heritage value. It remains to be seen if the Heritage Commission of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation will allow it to be demolished.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment