Indian Hotels, Ambuja Neotia seek to expand partnership beyond 5 properties

Taj brand aims at larger presence in the east, Neotia says being persuaded to look at North East too

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) is in talks with the Ambuja Neotia group to expand its partnership beyond the five-contracted properties as part of its plans to scale up its presence in the East.

The country’s largest hotel operator has 47 properties under management contracts in the pipeline by 2025 for the domestic market; ten are under development in the East.

Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and CEO, IHCL, said, choosing partners carefully is part of our ethos and this is a partnership of like-minded groups.  

The partnership with the Ambuja Neotia group for future projects, if it materialises, would be under the Taj brand.

In November, IHCL and the Ambuja Neotia group had announced signing of three Taj hotels - two in Kolkata, and one in Patna. These were jn addition to other properties - Taj Chia Kutir in Kurseong, West Bengal and Taj Guras Kutir in Gangtok, Sikkim. The five properties add up to 500 rooms.

For future projects, the Ambuja Neotia group would like to focus on West Bengal and Sikkim.

Harshvardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Neotia group, said, “We hope to create a tourism circuit in and around West Bengal and Sikkim. We picked up some lovely sites in the last 7-8 years.”

The group has land parcels in Darjeeling, near Gorumara forest area in Jalpaiguri, on the non-forest side of Sundarbans and Rabong in Sikkim.

Neotia said he was being persuaded to look at North East as well.

Among the already contracted properties with IHCL, Taj Chia Kutir started operations about three months back. “It’s doing well and is profitable,” said Chhatwal.

The hospitality industry was one of the worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe with curbs on travel.

On the recovery, Chhatwal said that December, January and February had seen about a 50 per cent up tick in business, though corporate travel was yet to pick up, particularly at the senior management level.

Leisure destinations were doing well, said Chhatwal. Some destinations like Goa were doing business as good as last year, he added.

Kerala, Rajasthan and the Coorg area were also doing well.