Imphal, September 18: Despite the fact that it was reopened after renovation amidst great fanfare, Imphal Hotel at North AOC has failed to attract customers and earn income even half of what it was earning earlier.

According to reliable source, the only 2-star hotel in the State was earning anywhere between Rs 3 to 4 lakhs in a month before its closure from June 2001 to September 2002.But even as efforts are being made to upgrade it into a 4-star hotel, it is hardly earning Rs 2 lakhs in a month.

The income generated from the hotel is also not able to meet the salary of its staffs.

At least Rs 5 lakhs are spent on salary of the staff and employees in a month.

Out of the 45 rooms, only 23/24 are being used, while the rest are not in a serviceable condition due to negligence of the Government.

Most of the walls on the ground floor of the Hotel are also in very bad shape due to leakage of rain water, the source said, informing that a major repairing work is needed urgently.

The source further said that most of the properties in the hotel have also damaged or stolen during the closure.

Over and above, as no proper repairing have been done before its reopening, the number of customers coming to stay at the hotel have also come down drastically, it said.

Meanwhile, taking all these account into consideration, the State Tourism Department is said to be looking into ways to put a stop cork over the loopholes for efficient functioning of the hotel and generate more income.

Tourism Minister Govindas Konthoujam is making arrangement for ensuring that all the visiting VIPs and the Govt officials are put up at the Hotel during their stay.

Accordingly instruction would be given to all the departments to make the hotel the first preference of official visitors.

Only those who could not be accommodated in the hotel would be allowed to stay at private hotels.

However, an official from the Tourism Department, on condition of anonymity held the State Government responsible for its present state.

He alleged that the Government has been using the hotel like a guest house, thereby stopping the people from coming to the hotel, which otherwise would have generated more income.

Moreover, most of the Hotel employees have become aged and could not provide service to the satisfaction of the customers, the official noted and suggested employment of younger ones on contract basis for improvement of service condition.

It may be noted here that Hotel Imphal was upgraded to 2-star category with the approval of the Union Govt's Hotel and Restaurant Classification Committee.

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