The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism on Tuesday recommended punitive measures against the contractors of Hotel Ruposhi Bangla for not completing the reconstruction work on time.
It urged the authorities concerned to set daily basis financial penalties for their failure to do so in line with the agreement.
The recommendation came at the 20th meeting of the committee held at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with its Chairman Muhammad Faruque Khan, MP, in the chair.
The government started renovation work of the state-owned Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, the country’s first five-star hotel, in 2013 with $40 million cost to upgrade the iconic property to global standards.
The hotel will also be rebranded as InterContinental Dhaka, following an agreement between InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Bangladesh Services Ltd (BSL), Ruposhi Bangla’s owner to manage the property for 30 years.
As per the work schedule, a total of 16 months have been allocated to accomplish the entire renovation work and it was supposed to start the new journey under InterContinental from January 2016.
InterContinental had earlier run the iconic Dhaka hotel from 1966 to 1983, after which Sheraton took over.
The parliamentary watchdog body suggested that realistic measures be adopted by the state-owned carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines for the booking of Hajj tickets on the basis of this year’s Hajj.
It also opted to finalize the Civil Aviation Authority Bill, 2016 after further discussion.
Committee members Professor M Ali Ashraf, MP, Tanvir Imam, MP, M Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, MP, M Aftaf Uddin Sarker, MP, and Sabiha Nahar Begum, MP, took part in the meeting.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary and officials concerned were also present at the meeting.
