From discotheque to coffee shop, Shivalikview to don new avatar

All set to regain its glory, Hotel Shivalikview in Sector 17 is in for a major revamp. From a refurbished round-the-clock coffee shop and multi-cuisine outlet in a new avatar restaurant to a bustling discotheque, the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) hotel is being decked up to surprise everyone with its new look.

Inaugurated in 1989, it was the leading hotel in the region in terms of the number of rooms. A go-to place for the city’s elite till 2000, the hotel has been all downhill ever since.

Now, out of total 108 rooms, 54 rooms on the second and third floors are being renovated with new interiors at the cost of ₹60 lakh. CITCO has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for opening up a discotheque in the basement of the hotel. Around 14 years back, CITCO decided to start a nightclub here to counter the competition. Even ₹20 lakh was spent on renovation and new infrastructure, but to no avail.

The café “Le Café’ in the hotel is now being run round-the-clock. Chairman of CITCO Nitin Yadav said the main motive is to make it a business hotel in the city. “The rooms are being renovated and very soon, we are opening a discotheque in the basement. Owing to Covid-19, we suffered losses of ₹82 lakh in 2021-22, but now we have recovered the losses and had a profit of ₹3.82 crore,” he said.

ANATOMY OF the HOTEL

The site where the hotel stands today was earlier planned for Janta hotel with its superstructure in place. But the hotel finally fell into the lap of CITCO during the tenure of former MD TC Gupta, who finally gave shape to Shivalikview. Inaugurated on December 31, 1989, by then UT adviser, Ashok Pradhan, the hotel has 100 rooms, three banquet halls, a restaurant-cum-coffee shop, a gym and spa. There was no hotel at that time in the city and even Hotel Mountview had only 33 rooms. Most five-star hotels in the city came up only after 2004.