Kenilworth plans to set up hotels in south India

The hotel group is planning to invest about Rs 120 crore over the next two-three years for setting up four-star hotels in Hyderabad and Coimbatore.

Speaking at a press conference on the launch of a bartending course in Kolkata on Wednesday, Raju Bharat, managing director, The Kenilworth, said, each of the new hotels would require an investment of around Rs 60 crore.

The hotel in Hyderabad, with around 120 rooms, would be functional by the end of this year, while that in Coimbatore will be completed by 2010, he said.

This apart, the hotel will start bartending course at the Kenilworth Academy of Bar Management, in collaboration with the University of Gastronomy , Stockholm.

With the revenue growth from bars in Kolkata growing at 25-30 percent yearly, there was huge shortage of skilled professional bartenders in the city, said Bharat.

Although Kolkata ranks fourth after Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, in terms of the number of bars, on an average more than 30 bars have opened in the city in the past four years inspite of the government clampdown while average alcohol consumption has also gone up in the past two years.

All these factors causing a tremendous shortage of trained manpower in the hospitality sector had forced us to open such a school, said Raju Bharat, managing director, The Kenilworth. The school will offering a comprehensive programme entailing the entire gamut of bar operations, tailor made to meet the international standards.

Two trained faculty personnel from the university of stockholm, Patrick Pall and Cristiano Gardellini will be supervising the whole course.

Conducted five days a week, this three-month long practical cum theory course will cost around Rs 35000 and will be internationally certified. The course will be operational from June 2 this year in Kolkata with a 30 student batch. The group will be first offering this course only in Kenilworth-Kolkata and take it to the Kenilworth Beach Resort-Goa within the next two months, he added.