Spirit Global to invest Rs 2,000 crore in hotels in Punjab

With an investment plan of Rs 2,000 crore by 2010, New Delhi-based Spirit Global Construction Private Ltd, a real estate development group, is set to construct five-star hotels in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Patiala, apart from five leisure-and-business hotels and resorts each, in the state.

The company is ready with 60 projects for 50-odd cities, including 16 malls and multiplexes, and 15 hotels (five-star hotels, five leisure and business hotels and five resorts).

The company will do the investment in a phased manner under the name "Global Malls", and unlike most of the investors choosing only the advanced cities of the state, the company, in addition to the big cities, will target tier III cities as well, i.e. the suburban as well as rural areas of the state.

Under its phased planning, the company has decided to cover cities like Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Kapurthala, Nawanshehr, Ferozepur, Zirakpur, Ropar, Faridkot, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Muktsar, Moga, Bhatinda, Mansa and Hoshiarpur.

The company has tied up with Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd, which has almost 250 screens in multiplexes as well as other theatres in the country, according to Anuj Malhan, director, Spirit Global Construction.

With this tie-up, the malls and multiplexes will have services like pay-per-view parlours, interactive video-conferencing, web streaming, context-based advertisements, online and multi-party gaming.

"We are going to introduce the concept of thematic malls in our projects," he said, adding the company had two of its projects lined up for Ludhiana, one on the Jalandhar-GT Road and the other on the Ferozepur Road, respectively.

About the sources of capital, Malhan said: "We will raise 50 per cent of the investment through foreign direct investment via a UK-based real estate development agency and construction work will start by 2008 and complete by 2010."