Star partners

Thailand's exclusive Dusit Group is the latest to foray into India's burgeoning hotel segment.

After the entry of the likes of Shangri-La, Accor in a joint venture (JV) with InterGlobe Hotels, Berggruen Hotels and Dawnay Day, the latest international brand to enter the Indian hospitality market is the Bangkok-based Dusit Group. Dusit has just signed a JV with Delhi-based Bird Group to form the Dusit-Bird Management Company.

The JV company plans to open three Dusit Thani branded five-star hotels in Delhi, Goa and Rishikesh in the first phase by 2010.

Subsequently, they plan to add new properties in cities like Pune, Amritsar, Jaipur and then Hyderabad and Bangalore. "We have a target to reach 12 hotels in the next 3-5 years," says Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird Group.

The Bird Group will own and capitalise all the properties and the 50:50 JV company will manage and brand the properties. The Dusit-Bird Management Company will also be looking at managing other third party properties soon.

"We are already talking to a property in Varanasi and one close to Chandigarh for management contracts and branding," reveals Bhatia.

The Bird Group has already acquired land in all the three locations to be developed in the first phase. In Delhi, the 220-280 room five-star business hotel will come up on 7.5 acres on NH 8.

In Goa, they have 22 acres on Arrosim Beach in south Goa's Cansaulim area while in Rishikesh, their 5-acre land lies just ahead of Shivpuri.

Bhatia will invest $200 million in the first three properties to come up by 2010. The cost per room for them will be about Rs 40 lakh a room, excluding the cost of land.

For the Delhi property, the group might later decide to brand it as a four-star hotel to avail the five-year tax holiday offered by the government to two, three and four star hotels in the recent Budget. The tax holiday is for hotels which start operations before March 2010.