89- ONE HUNDRED AND ONE YEARS !

                               KHORSHED MANSION  CELEBRATES

                                ONE   HUNDRED    AND  ONE  YEARS 

 Khorshed mansion at Kohinoor Korner celebrates one hundred and one years on July 26th 2024.  

The story of this majestic structure began in July 1923.  Khorshed Irani, my grandmother, pioneered the establishment and started Kohinoor Restaurant on the ground floor at 241 Mahatma Gandhi Road, known as Sadar Bazar, in those days.

Top floors remain untenanted since the year 2000, as Lashkar water works has allowed the present ground floor tenant Ali jafari, to divert all pipelines into the restaurant, of which he is the present proprietor.

The present owners are the late Ardeshir  and late Moti Irani, who have willed this property to their daughter, Meherbanoo Irani.  She is having a legal battle with three ground floor tenants, two Billimorias and Ali Jafari, and one illegal encroacher, subtenant of Ali Jafari,  who is running a cigarette shop, to be evicted, so that repairs and renovation can restore Khorshed Mansion to its previous glory.

It is sad to note that Ali Jafari has encroached within the common area of wooden staircase leading up to the top floors.  He has blocked the spiral fire escape stairs and has no trade license nor a fire compliancy certificate.   Workers have no police registration and so as landlords, we are helpless against this apathy.

The other tenant, Hemali who runs Billi food corner, has no running water, nor a fire compliancy certificate, nor a trade license.  PCB has been requested to look into the irregularities, but they have no inclination to right things.

The present great grandson of Khorshed Irani, Roostam Irani, has hopes of reviving this ancestors' legacy and reverting it to our original ownership, as he is an experienced and qualified Hotel Management graduate.   Presently he is at the mercy of working for very little salary for other hoteliers, in spite of having this elegant property in our family ownership.  Tenants take over precious properties without any rent agreement nor registration and do not want to leave, nor are willing to contribute towards major repairs.  They hold the owners at ransom and quote the rent control act, to justify the measly rent they pay.   Such problems should be resolved urgently by courts to prevent loss of life due to dilapidated status of properties.  And also to give respite to owners for bonafide need.  Tenants are asking for crores of rupees to vacate, as this is how the govt rent control act allows them to hold the rightful owners to blackmail and extort money.

Khorshed Mansion needs to be saved as an iconic structure and an old Iranian legacy of zorastrian Irani refugees.