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RS member, hotelier Lalit Suri dead
Published on Tue, Oct 10, 2006 at 08:16, Updated on Tue, Oct 10, 2006 at 20:24 in India section
Tags: Lalit Suri, Rajya Sabha Member , New Delhi
New Delhi: Hotelier Lalit Suri is no more. He died in the early hours on Monday night in London, at just 59 years of age. CNN-IBN reports on a man who had a circular interest in hospitality and politics.
The 444-room hotel in central Delhi, flagship of Bharat Hotels was in blazing controversy.
The hotel opened in October 1988, seven years after the company was incorporated, well after the Asian Games, the delay caused in part because of building byelaw violations norms for commercial space.
But Lalit Suri had the political connections to weather the storm. He was close to Sanjay Gandhi, and his family had a dealership of Maruti Udyog, a company that Sanjay Gandhi had founded.
Suri himself trained in London in automobile engineering and had an abiding love for cars.
Like his hotel brands, Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Hilton, Intercontinental and now the Grand, Suri could not settle on one passion, unlike M S Oberoi, who was single minded about building a luxury hotel brand.
Suri divided his time between hospitality and politics. Perhaps he saw them as investments. He was serving his second term, having been elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 as an independent candidate with support from the Congress and the BJP.
In 1998, he de-listed his company. Thereafter, he seems to have gone on overdrive, setting up hotels and acquiring divested ITDC properties.
He invested in the Mumbai and Goa hotels when the industry was in a downturn following the 9/11 attack and the SARS epidemic.
He bought the 115-room palace hotel in Srinagar when no one dared to invest in the Valley.
His last big acquisition was the 140-year-old Great Eastern of Kolkata November 2005, taking the number of rooms under his fold to 2000.
Suri would have turned 60 next month, and celebrated his wedding anniversary on Wednesday.
Lalit Suri did not make much of a mark in politics, his hotels do not spell class, but he certainly left his imprint on the business.
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