Sources say eight acres is too big a site for projects like a hotel which do not require more than five acres of land. No expert was consulted by HUDA before fixing the basic terms for the hotel site.

“The economic sense of HUDA must have gone haywire while planning this project. In fact, the viability of the project turns out to be nil in this case. For a five star deluxe hotel, eight acres is too big a site as a maximum of five acres can easily serve the purpose. Also, only 1.75 of the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) has been allowed, which is too less in this case,” said Manbeer Chaudhary, president of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Haryana.

He added that ideally, HUDA should have approached experts in this field and only after taking care of the requirements of this industry, the basic details for the project should have been made.

Prem Gandhi, chairman of KC Group India, who is also constructing a five star hotel in Sector 3, Panchkula, said, “Panchkula has no market when it comes to the luxury hotel industry. Also, the concept of luxury hotel can work only in major cities like Delhi and Mumbai. He added that the eight acre site should be divided into two and then used for the construction of smaller hotels rather than a big one for which the city has no market right now, he added.

But for BR Advertising Service, a Chandigarh-based company that was looking after the marketing of the auction of the site, no stone was left unturned to attract national and international players for the auction. “It came as a shock to us as we had sent brochures and invites to around 230 big builders and real estate people for the auction. It was a proper campaign but it’s surprising that no one turned up,” said Vikram Bansal from BR Advertising.