The Ashok Hotel Story: Donated land and kings’ money, this is how India’s first government 5 star hotel was built on this day

New Delhi: Today there is no dearth of five star hotels in the country, but there was a time when there was not a single government five star hotel in India. At that time, the country’s first government five star hotel was built in Delhi. Which was named The Ashoka. This hotel was completed on this very day, its construction also has a different story.

How the country got its first government 5 star hotel

In the year 1955, when the 8th UNESCO conference was going on in Paris, the country’s first PM Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had also gone to that conference and he/she had proposed to the UNESCO countries to hold the next conference in India. On which all the countries agreed and then it was decided that the next UNESCO conference would be held in India.

The country’s first PM Nehru had put forward a proposal in Paris, but when he/she came to India and told the officials about his/her proposal, he/she came to know that there is no such place in Delhi where foreign guests can be accommodated. The officials told the PM Told that we will need a place for the event and a luxury hotel for the guests. After which PM Nehru ordered to build both the places within a year. Just at that time the foundation of the country’s first government five star hotel was laid. Which we know as ‘The Ashoka’.

This hotel is built on donated land

The most important thing about the country’s first government hotel is that it is built on donated land. Prince Karan Singh of Jammu and Kashmir had donated 25 acres of land to build the hotel. Apart from this, the initial expenses incurred in building this hotel were also paid by the princes. Now the government had land and money too but again a question arose.

In fact, till that time no engineer in India had the experience of building such luxury hotels. When the PM came to know about this, he/she sent engineers abroad for training. Engineers came back after learning from there and built this luxury hotel here. Let us tell you that the responsibility of construction of this hotel was given to CPWD.

PM used to come on horse for inspection

This hotel was also close to PM Nehru’s heart because when the hotel was being built, the PM himself used to come riding on horse to inspect the hotel. PM wanted to show a new picture of India to the world in the UNESCO conference. After which this hotel with 550 guest rooms and a large garden was built before the UNESCO conference.

Let us tell you that the 9th conference of UNESCO was held on 5 November 1956 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi for a month. At that time there were 77 members in UNESCO. At that time, more than 200 high profile guests had come to India in Delhi and were accommodated in the country’s first government five star hotel ‘The Ashok’.