Lack of reasonable entrance and exit along with the desired space for parking lot was the main cause behind Saturday's truck blast at Marriott Hotel, said hotel owner Sadruddin Hashwani, while talking to Business Recorder here on Friday.
Hashwani said that he had been trying hard to purchase the plot situated at the back of the hotel building to make entrance and the exit points wider, besides providing reasonable parking to make stay of the guests more comfortable.
Despite several requests to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for allotment of the plot, the authority did not bother to reply to the letters sent by the hotel management, Hashwani said.
It was true that under the civic body's by-laws, the CDA could not auction the plot, but Hashwani alleged that the authority officials wanted the hotel management to grease their palms. "If the hotel had backyard entrance and exit, the deadly Saturday's terrorist attack would have been avoided and people stranded in the building would have been saved", Hashwani maintained.
He said that hotel parking was very small and only a few vehicles could be accommodated there. "The guest, mostly park their vehicles on road, which is itself a high security risk and many drivers sitting in parked vehicles died or injured in the blast", he said.
Meanwhile, the owner alleged that the CDA had demanded about two billion rupees for allotment of the plot situated behind the devastated Marriott building. The authority declared the area, where the plot is situated as semi-commercial because of its prime location and set its value at two billion rupees for auction.
The high ups of the civic body were in the process of holding an open auction shortly, he said. The CDA has invited applications for the auction of the plot from interested parties, sources in the CDA told Business Recorder, and added that after receiving the applications well-reputed parties would be short listed and invited for the open bidding of the plot to be held in presence of high CDA officials.
The CDA officials hoped that various international hotels' chains would participate in the bidding because of its prime location for constructing a five star hotel. Reacting to the CDA's plan, Hashwani said that the plot was behind the Marriott Hotel in the Sector G-5 green belt, hence it could not be sold as commercial property. He further said that slowly and gradually various sections of the hotel were in the process of restoration, as kitchen was ready. On Juma-tul-Wida, the hotel management arranged Quran Khwani followed by an Iftar dinner.
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