Patna: The Bihar government will soon get possession of the ITDC-run hotel Patliputra Ashok at a cost of Rs 13 crore, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Monday.

"After the railway ministry agreed to hand over 71.25 acres of the Digha-Patna rail line land to the Bihar government for construction of a road on it, the state government will soon get the ITDC-run hotel Patliputra Ashok along with its 1.5 acres of land located in the heart of the capital," Modi said.

After getting possession of the land and building, the government would take a decision on whether the hotel should be run by it (the state government) or operate it under a PPP (public private partnership) mode, he said.

Modi, who is also Bihar's finance minister, said that 1.5 acres of land belonging to the revenue and land reforms department located at a prime location in Patna was given to the Centre's tourism ministry on lease with certain terms and conditions on May 26, 1973.

One of the conditions was that the state government would take back its land by giving three months' notice to the lessee (the tourism ministry in this case), he said.

The central government is going to disinvest in ITDC-run hotels that includes the Patliputra Ashok. The agreement to hand over the hotel at a cost of Rs 13 crore was reached during a meeting held on June 19 this year between union tourism secretary Rashmi Verma and Bihar's principal secretary, tourism, Ravi Parmar in Delhi, Modi said.

Earlier, the valuation of the hotel, including its land, was fixed at Rs 28.5 crore but when the state government reminded the union tourism ministry that the land belonged to it and was given to the ministry on lease, it was scaled down, Modi said.

On June 26, the Bihar cabinet gave its nod for getting 71.25 acres of the Digha-Patna rail line land transferred to the road construction department on payment of Rs 222.19 crore for construction of a 4-6 lane road on it. PTI