OFF THE RECORD review:
Tulip star in Juhu gets Collector notice
I am sure all you must have heard/known about Hotel Tulip Star (earlier Juhu Centaur) at Juhu near Amitabh Bachchan’s bunglow. Most prestigious hotel from Andheri to Bandra and older than its neighbour JW Marriott; and always in competition with Hotel Sun-N Sand & Holiday Inn (now Novotel) since years. Famous for its beach side weddings and swimming pools that attracted a lot of foreign tourist’s, Tulip Star is a beautiful property owned by Ajit Kerkar (former Taj hotels president) and during 2005 the Government in its process of disinvestment had sold to a company controlled by Kerkar and people say, it was merely sold at Rs. 153 crores against its market value of Rs. 400 crore that time. The deal was “brokered” in favour of Kerkar by none other than late Pramod Mahajan. Anyway this is just the history of Tulip Star. Recently one of the IAS officers due to retirement had held his daughters wedding there. Tulip star has an open lawn, pool side venue & an fully air-conditioned banquet hall for weddings and events, going you the info, just in case if you plan to re-marry again! But below just hear the costs involved!!
Anyway, coming to Tulip star the Hotel is in complete legal mess. The Hotel’s condition structure wise is in doldrums and the only survival part for the Hotel for maintenance is holding wedding functions of the super rich families who can afford a plate of food ranging from Rs. 1100 to Rs. 2000/- per person. Along with this, the family hosting weddings here will have to cough up around Rs. 2 to Rs.7 lakhs as Rentals for the place (depending on how many venues you choose) and separate expenses for the decorator and else things. Now the news part!
Collector Bandra has issued a notice to the Hotel asking them to cancel all the future bookings and a team has been set by the Collector to monitor the financial transactions of the Hotel for the last 3 to 5 years, claimed sources. Now for every 3 or 5 years this Hotel “lends” the place to a battery of powerful Gujrati’s (our area is dominated by this caste) for an amount ranging anywhere from Rs. 15 to Rs. 20 crore as fees. This year the fees has allegedly escalated to Rs. 25 crore for 5 years. These contracts are usually for 3 to 5 years. These powerful Gujrati’s in turn sub lease the contract and appoint powerful and “popular” caterers & decorators of Mumbai and collect 5 to 6 crores from each of them (as deposits) again for the same period and sub contract the services part. So in all, the team which originally bags the contract from Tulip star is safe as more than 80% of the money invested is recovered through sub leasing. Now to cover the remaining costs & make profits, deposits against bookings are taken. The caterer to recover his initial costs of Rs. 5 crore will definitely sell his food anywhere from Rs. 1100 per plate to Rs. 2000. Decorator makes his own money ranging from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 50 lakhs per event to cover his “deposited” amount. Everything was hunky-dory till now; everyone was making money. Enters BJP’s Gujrati community’s some Patel leader and yes have heard he is very close to Vinod Tawde & is said to be puppet of Amrish/Bhupesh Patel (Mithibai & NM college’s trustee). He bags the contract even after friend of Dilip Thakkar and owner of Blue Foods Mr. Kapoor had shown keen interest in the project. How & why? Do I need to tell you’ll after I have given you his connections above?
By the way this Patel’s son has just become a Corporator in the recently concluded BMC elections. So the money (allegedly) spent on elections needed to be recovered. So he bagged the contract to “manage” Tulip Star and make his friends “popular” and rich.
Mind You —the electricity and water supply connection at the TULIP star is completely ILLEGAL. The BMC is managed there big time…Also for your information –the swimming pool is covered(illegal to do it) and the Hotel’s Management shamelessly flouts all the rules and make the weddings look beautiful. Now lets wait & watch what happens with this one, as what information I have, this Collector is never in the mood to relent to any pressures or offers. Some what like our very own Tukaram Munde, Rajendra Nimbalkar, Ashwini Joshi, and so on….
Blog on Gibert Mendonsa v/s MLA Narendra Mehta: (In Marathi)
मेंडोन्सा विरुद्ध मेहता : पत्रकार हेमंत जोशी http://vikrantjoshi.com/
मेंडोन्सा विरुद्ध मेहता २ : पत्रकार हेमंत जोशी http://vikrantjoshi.com/
Happy Reading,
Vikrant Joshi
