Agartala, Jun 5: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday laid the foundation stone for a five-star heritage hotel here with an aim to boost tourism in Tripura.
The Taj Pushpabanta Palace will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore in the next three years, an official said.
Chief Minister Manik Saha and Tipra Motha Party supremo Pradyot Kishore Debbarma were present during the event.
The state government had signed an agreement with the Tata Group-promoted Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) on March 14 last year to convert the iconic Pushpabanta Palace into a heritage five-star hotel.
Built in 1917 by Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya, the palace was the Raj Bhavan till 2018. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 80th birthday was celebrated in the Pushpabanta Palace in May 1941.
“The proposed hotel will be named Taj Pushpabanta Palace and will be developed by the Taj group with an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore in the next three years”, the official said.
It will have a total of 104 rooms, and four of which will be developed keeping in mind the lifestyle of the kings, he said.
Earlier in the day, Shah, who is on a two-day visit to Tripura, addressed BSF personnel at Lankamura Border Outpost in West Tripura district.
He is also scheduled to chair a high-level security review meeting this evening with special emphasis on effective border management at the BSF Tripura Frontier headquarters at Shalbagan in West Tripura.
The chief minister, who also holds the home portfolio, Chief Secretary JK Sinha, DGP Anurag Dhankar and senior security officials will attend the meeting. (PTI)
