Calcutta, Oct. 30 :    Calcutta, Oct. 30:  The fate of the 160-year-old Great Eastern Hotel is likely to be decided on Tuesday when the state tourism minister, Manab Mukherjee, puts the proposal to privatise the state-owned hotel before the Cabinet. Sources said the state government has finalised the handover of the hotel to the French firm, Accor Asia Pacific. The minister today called a meeting of all four employee unions and told them about the proposal to be taken up. 'Chief minister Jyoti Basu wants to seal the future of Great Eastern Hotel before he moves out of office. 'The proposal is expected to be cleared,' a senior government official said. The government had invited bids for privatisation early last year. The handover will lead to the retrenchment of all 500 employees. Accor will spend Rs 15 crore on the severance package. However, it has said a screening committee will interview employees who are below 45 years of age. 'If they are found suitable, they will be absorbed. The committee will comprise representatives of the unions, the state tourism and finance ministries, and Accor Asia Pacific,' the sources said. Of the 500 employees, about 170 are below 45 years of age; there are 30 officers, 100 staff and 370 workers. Great Eastern Hotel, which is currently running on grants-in-aid, was set up in 1840 by D. Wilson & Co. It became a public undertaking of West Bengal in 1975. Five years later, it was nationalised by the state government under the Great Eastern Hotel (Acquisition of Undertaking) Act, 1980. Spread over an area of 6.5 bighas, it is a four-star hotel with 215 rooms, 13 big banquet halls and seven selling outlets, comprising restaurants and bars. The salary bill is Rs 30 lakh per month. The condition of the hotel started deteriorating since 1967 and the occupancy rate has now dwindled to 20-25 per cent. Accor will invest Rs 100 crore in the hotel, developing it as a heritage five-star property. Initially, the government will hand over the lease of the hotel for 30 years. In the first year, Accor will pay a lease rental of Rs 1.5 crore to the state government. Tourism department sources said Tulip Star Hotels and Rosewood Hotels (promoted by Manish Financial Limited) had also submitted bids but state government had rejected the latter on the ground that it was not 'was not up to the mark'. Tulip's bid was rejected because they wanted to develop Great Eastern as a three star hotel. 'More important, they do not have enough experience to run a hotel,' sources said. All the four unions - Great Eastern Staff and Workers Association (Intuc affiliated), Great Eastern Staff and Employees Union, Great Eastern Staff and Workers Union and Great Executive Association - met the tourism minister today. Atiar Rahman, secretary of the Intuc union, said: 'We do not know why the minister called us today. He did not give us a formal proposal. But what he has told us really disappointing. We will go on warpath if the government wants to push the scheme. The scheme will affect the interest of the workers.'