Andhra to set up star hotel, convention centre in Delhi

The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to develop its prime property spread across 20 acres covering AP Bhavan and Pataudi House in New Delhi by setting up a five-star hotel, a big convention centre and service apartments besides office space for own use as well as for rental purpose at an estimated cost of about Rs 1,100 crore through private participation.

The move comes in the wake of the Delhi government's request to Andhra to consider building a five-star hotel on the Pataudi House land, though located in a residential area, keeping in view the Commonwealth Games to be held in 2010.

The state government wants to go beyond the star hotel project to realise the full commercial potential of the property by adding other facilities and office space, officials told Business Standard.

While the state cabinet is expected to take a final view on the proposed plan next week, the infrastructure and investment department has swiftly completed the preparatory work by putting in place a high profile technical advisory committee besides shortlisting the names of construction companies for the proposed project development.

The members of the committee include V D Diwan, chief architect of Delhi Development Authority, C Gumbeer, former chief commissioner of planning, Kuldeep Chander, head of building construction and management, School of Planning and Architecture, G V Rao, IIT Delhi, among others.

Nine companies, namely, DLF Universal Limited, Reliance Utilities & Power Limited, Ascendas Pte Limited, Emmar Properties, L&T Maytas Consortium, Nagarjuna Constructions, Omaxe Limited, India Bulls and Tisman Speyer ICICI Venture Consortium have been shortlised to take up the project. The state cabinet approval is awaited for the proposed project.

The government is actively considering offering the land for development on a fixed tenure lease and revenue-sharing basis. All the facilities, including the star hotel project, would be transferred to the state government after the end of the lease period under this investment model.

Officials said a 300- room five-star hotel costing around Rs 600 crore and a world-class convention centre similar to the one located in Hyderabad costing around Rs 200 crore are proposed to be set up on the Pataudi House land along with service apartments.

Another Rs 300 crore is proposed to be invested to develop office space and other facilities both for government use and commercial purposes on the AP Bhavan land.

"We want to increase the built-up space for government usage to at least 2 lakh square feet from around 50,000 square feet we have in AP Bhavan and rest of the space can be rented out or given on lease to private firms," an official involved in the project said.