Goa property owned by Leelaventure sold for 725 cr.

Leelaventure sold for 725 cr.

The luxury hotels operator Leelaventure Ltd. has sold its Goa property to a Malaysian company for Rs 725 crore ($111 million). According to sources, this move has been taken to cut its debt.

MUMBAI : The state government on Saturday took a landmark decision to provide deemed conveyance certificates to housing societies within six months of the date of application. This will bring much relief to many housing societies that are knocking on the doors of the cooperation department for deemed conveyance.

A senior bureaucrat confirmed to TOI that the department has promulgated an order under Maharashtra Right To Public Services Act to make it mandatory to provide the certificate within six months. “Under the Act, we have proposed to provide four services in a time-bound manner,” he said.

He added that a cooperative society will now be registered within two months, money lenders’ licence and renewal will be done in two months from the application date. “An official order for the purpose has been notified on Saturday,” he said.

Soon after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis took over in October last year, he had promised that his government would bring in a stringent legislation to provide basic services to people, and in a time-bound manner. The CM had introduced the Right To Services Bill in both houses of the state legislature. As it could not be passed, an ordinance was promulgated for the purpose. Fadnavis’s contention was that if red-tapism and corruption have to be stopped, basic services must be delivered in a timely manner. “For efficient, transparent governance, we will provide 110 services in a time-bound manner,” he had told the legislative assembly.

Under this Act, if an official fails to provide information within the prescribed period, s/he is liable to pay a penalty between Rs500 and Rs5,000.

“The CM is keen that before he completes a year in office, all departments must issue an order with specific services and time required to provide them,” said the bureaucrat.

Leelaventure has traded the 206-room hotel in Goa to a unit of MetTube Sdn Bhd, the Malaysian company but will continue to manage it on contractual basis, it said in a statement. The Goa hotel accounted for 15 per cent of Leelaventure’s total income for the financial year to 2014 – 15.

The deal, which is the biggest single asset acquisition in India’s hospitality sector, is expected to close by end-December.