Grand pens Rs 1000 cr hotels spread

The Lalit Suri-promoted Grand Group will invest about Rs 1,000 crore to set up hotels and renovate existing properties in the next three to four years. The investments will be part-funded by internal accruals as well as loans from financial institutions.

The company is looking at setting up hotels in Bekal in Kerala, Surat in Gujarat and Hyderabad. It is also planing an additional property in New Delhi.

"We are looking at about 10 to 11 properties over the next few years," Lalit Suri, chairman of the group, said today. While the property in Kerala will be a five star resort, the property in Hyderabad will be a business segment hotel.

The Surat property, for which the group is negotiating for about 117 acres, will be both a resort as well as a business segment property.

Besides, the group is also aggressively bidding for the government owned Centaur Hotel near the New Delhi airport. "We need a property in that location. We will bidding aggressively for the Centaur," Suri said.

He added that the group is also planing to set up two properties in Uttar Pradesh. "I want to set up a property in Varanasi and Lucknow. These two cities need additional rooms and we see a great potential there," he said. Suri said the company has put forward an application to the Rajasthan government for land to set up a property in Jaipur.

Suri, however, ruled out an immediate entry into the low-cost hotel segment. He said the land related rules will have to be relaxed to make the low-cost hotel model viable.

"We need to get cheaper land to set up and run low-cost hotels. The state governments will have to take necessary steps in this direction," Suri pointed out.

He added that the group is also exploring the option of starting an air charter service. It currently owns one aircraft and plans to add more aircraft to the fleet.

"We will have some more aircraft and helicopters in the fleet. I am not entering the traditional airline or low-cost airline business. It will be just an air charter service," Suri pointed out.