Tatas to set up 30 Ginger hotels by 2007-08

Roots Corporation Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Tata Group controlled Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), will set up 30 "smart basics" hotels across the country under the brand name "Ginger" by 2007-08.

"Our objective is to build 100 basic hotels in the country and we plan to develop 30 such properties over the next couple of years", Roots Corporation CEO Prabhat Pani, said.

The average investment in a 100-room basic hotel is pegged at Rs 10 crore, minus the cost of land, which varies from place to place.

At this rate, the company will pump in over Rs 300 crore for developing the properties in next two years.

This will be financed through equity contribution by IHCL and debt, Pani said.

Pani was here to attend the launch of the Ginger hotel at Bhubaneswar. It is the third property in the chain, while the other two hotels are currently operating in Bangalore and Haridwar.

The number of Ginger hotels would swell to 10 by the end of this fiscal, he said, adding that Pune, Mysore, Thiruvanathapuram and Durgapur will soon follow the Bhubaneswar launch.

These hotels are now under various stages of completion while work has commenced in Goa, Nasik, Pondicherry and Agartala.

The company also intends to start work on hotels in Tirupur, Varanasi, Pantnagar, Baroda and Ahmedabad among other destinations within the next couple of months.

"We want to be present in all category of cities - tier I, II and III where there is potential for tourist flow on account of business growth and tourism", he said, adding that the locations were identified after detailed studies across various parameters like potential for market, clusters of clientele and peak period, among others.

In Orissa, apart from the state capital, the company proposes to set up Ginger hotels at Paradip, Puri and Konark.

It is also looking at other places such as Duburi, Jharsuguda and Angul where a number of steel plants and other metal related industries are proposed to be set up.