Demolition of the Great Eastern Hotel, the first step towards its reconstruction, is expected to start from Monday — exactly a year after the sick State PSU went into the hands of Delhi-based Bharat Hotels Ltd.

Following the State Government’s pressure, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation today handed over the demolition permission to the authorities of the Grand Great Eastern Hotel — the new avatar of the hotel.

‘’We have all the sanctions and permissions from all the departments of the government and the corporation. The only one that was needed was permission for demolition, and that order came today. We will start work on Monday,’’ said Satya Roy Choudhury, resident manager of the hotel.

Just yesterday, Ardhendu Sen, principal secretary, department of public sector undertaking, said he had given instructions to the concerned departments for permission for demolition to be released forthwith.

Recently, the company got a jolt following the sudden death of its chairman, Lalit Suri, on October 10. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also expressed concern. The next board meeting of the hotel is scheduled to be held in Kolkata on October 30, but nobody knows whether it will take place.

The hotel officials in Kolkata said they had received instructions from Delhi to carry on with their work at the same pace. ‘’The death was a great shock for us. But we have not slackened our pace of work. We received instructions from Delhi to carry on with our work at the same pace and with the same sincerity as before. Now, it’s a challenge to see how fast we can translate the dream of our late chairman to convert the hotel into a world-class one, which will be a pride of Kolkata,’’ said an official.

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