Tatas line up Rs 348 crore for 29 new Ginger hotels

Roots Corporation (RCL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Tata Group-controlled Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), is planning to open 29 new Ginger hotels across the country, including 12 in Maharashtra, in the next three years. The company will invest Rs 348 crore in two phases in the proposed hotels.

IHCL has developed the Smart Basic concept hotel under the brand name Ginger. The company, currently, has eight Ginger hotels with a total built-up area of 3.60 lakh sq ft across the country, including two in Maharashtra (Pune and Nashik) and one each in Bangalore, Haridwar, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Thiruvananthpuram and Durgapur.

Speaking to 'Business Standard', Prabhat Pani, chief executive officer, Roots Corporation, said, "In the first phase, we will build 17 hotels in major cities across the country, including Pantnagar, Baroda, Ludhiana, Goa, Puducherry, Delhi, Agartala, Tirupur, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Mangalore, Paradeep and Ahmedabad. In the second phase, we will build 12 hotels in Maharashtra "" one each in Nagpur, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar and Kolhapur, three in Pune in Hinjewadi, Chakan and Ranjangaon, and around five hotels in the Mumbai suburbs," he said.

Talking about the hospitality sector in the country, Pani said, "Till March this year, there were around 1.15 lakh rooms in the country across all categories of hotels.

Of these, hotels of three star and below accounted for 70,000 rooms, with four- and five-star hotels making up the rest. By March next year, the number of rooms of all categories of hotels will reach up to 1.52 lakh, including 1.22 lakh rooms for hotels of three star and below."

He further added that the country would see a demand for 1.30 lakh hotel rooms by March 2008 compared with a demand for 75,000 rooms in March 2007.

"With increase in incomes, the country's middle class is spending more on tour and travel and people are looking at value-for-money options for clean and safe stay. Considering this and with an aim to target this class, we have developed the Smart Basics concept hotels under the brand name Ginger," he said.

ADDING SPICE

The company has eight Ginger hotels (with a total built-up area of 3.60 lakh sq ft) across the country, including two in Maharashtra

Till March this year, there were around 1.15 lakh rooms in the country across all category of hotels. By next year, the number will reach 1.52 lakh

In the initial phase of operations, with three aircraft, SpiceJet is expected to cover cities