KARACHI, Feb 21: The Hyatt Regency Hotel (HRH) project, which failed to take off despite its flotation by the Privatization Commission in April and October last year, is now being reprocessed, it is learnt.
In October last year the Commission had invited bids of expression of interest for the disposal of its assets, lease rights and its incomplete structure.
The project, spread over an area of more than 10,000 square yards, is situated at the intersection of Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan Road and Dr Ziauddin Road close to a commercial area.
The Hyatt Regency project had been initiated during the regime of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the mid-1970s on railway land, but after the overthrow of the PPP government in 1977, the project was left incomplete.
The principle amount invested in the HRH was Rs276 million which, with the passage of time and accumulation of interest, has turned into, according to a rough estimate, Rs1.2 billion.
After intervention by the State Bank of Pakistan, it was agreed, in principle, that the accumulated interests would be waived off and the Pakistan Railways would lease out the land for 99 years from the date the project would be sold off to a new firm.
According to circles close to the Privatization Commission, no lucrative bids has been received due to the unsettled situation in the region following the US-led allied action against terrorism in Afghanistan.
In January last year the Task Force for Economic Revival of Urban Sindh, headed by Shahid Firoze, had taken interest in the revival of the project to make it an income-generating unit instead of leaving it a haunted house and turning it into a haven for anti-social elements and drug addicts and peddlers.
The Task Force had recommended to the government that all incomplete projects, including the HRH, standing with bare structures for many years for want of a decision, be either revitalized or demolished.
It was of the view that these projects not only had turned into ugliness on the city’s lanscape but also presented a negative image of Karachi before investors.
A swift action to enforce the decision was taken at the very first meeting of the Economic Development Council (EDC) which met soon after its notification on March 31 last year in the Governor’s House.
Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, being chairman of the EDC, at the meeting had reiterated the government’s resolve to reinvigorate Karachi and make it a hub of commercial and economic activity. This, he said, would not only help in amelioration of the lot of the people of Karachi but also be beneficial to the entire country.