Holidaying With Warren Hastings
Seeing the immense potential of earning tourist dollars from selling Indias wild wonders, two mega-resort chains are pooling their resources to pitch a luxury camp on the wild side.
The US-based Radisson chain of luxury hotels is teaming up with Ganpati Greenfields of Calcutta a subsidiary of Gujarat Ambuja Cements to set up a novel heritage resort at Raichak, a quiet hamlet on the banks of the river Hooghly, 50 kilometres from Calcutta.
Soon, the Sunderbans will also sport log cabins and ritzy open-air restaurants.
In short, West Bengal is finally jumping onto the bandwagon of heritage hotels and adventure safaris. A fable is slowly coming to life at the riverside resort at Raichak. A perfect replica of a huge Gothic fort, supposedly circa Warren Hastings, will throw open its doors to visitors this winter.
Complete with rampart, moat, drawbridges, armoury, stable courts, towers and wells the bastion looms large against the unbroken horizon of the river.
Touched with brilliant purple and gold at sundown, the old bricks hold all the promises of thundering cannons and the vignettes of a Georgian romance.
Ganpati Greenfields Sunderbans project also in the pipeline is only waiting for the final green signal from the state government. According to Harshavardhan Neotia, the young director of Ganpati Greenfields, Once we get the clearance, we will arrange exclusive safaris of international quality at this luxurious jungle resort spread over 30 acres.
The resort will be built along futuristic lines, as there is no history of royal safaris at the Sunderbans, adds Neotia. It will include nature walks and video screenings of wildlife films. A water park resort is also on the cards and it will boast a variety of water sports. Neotia is fond of asserting that boating down the crocodile-infested creeks along slushy mangrove forests, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, is bound to be an adventure with a difference.
The Raichak fort is also Neotias brainchild. And the once-desolate landscape now hums with activity. The river takes a smooth turn at Raichak and begins to widen downstream towards Diamond Harbour.
Only the river can provide such a majestic backdrop, says Neotia, explaining this site was a logical choice.
The construction site is a bee-hive of activity. High-profile architects such as Prabir Mitra, building contractors, engineers and topnotch interior designers shoot rapid-fire instructions to thousands of labourers as they ferry truckloads of cement, bricks, paint, wood and glass. Neotia has taken care to make sure that the existing greenery remains untouched. In fact, environmentalists will be pleased to see the number of artificial waterbodies and freshly-planted saplings which are coming up.
It has taken Neotia three years to consolidate all the land from local residents and build the Rs 20 crore fort. Now this red brick fort with its huge turrets, and narrow stairways snaking their way to the ramparts and hidden dungeons, is shaping up as the first five star hotel on the banks of the Hooghly.
The Ffort, (as the new Radisson resort has been christened), is being designed along the lines of a perfect weekend leisure get-away on the riverside, for both domestic and foreign tourists, says Neotia. Starved of a proper theme resort for all these years, the city is bound to buy this dream experience, feels Neotia.
The add-ons include plenty of ambience, boating, tennis courts endorsed by Leander Paes, a golf course and all the rest associated with a five-star resort, including membership to the exclusive club Magna Charta, by invitation only. Neotia plans to hire luxury cars and avail of the catamaran service to Haldia for transporting his select guests to the Fort.
But why build a medieval fort in this century? Well, if you do not have an exotic locale at hand to draw high-budget tourists, you simply create one, reasons Neotia. The young director is quite upfront about cashing in on the Raj nostalgia and is banking on his picturebook fort bowling guests over.
Fort Raichak (appropriately dated circa 1783) is being positioned by Neotia as a secret bastion an exclusive hideout for a small band of soldiers from Fort William, to keep a watch on pirates. And to be true to the antiquity, the bricks used on the facade of the fort are being carted to Raichak from crumbling Calcutta buildings.
For those who find this recreated fantasy difficult to swallow, there is a real connection with the past. The ruins of the nearby Chingreekhal Fort will help guests imagine that they are actually staying at a refurbished British fort.
And this is the unique selling proposition that Neotia is banking heavily on. Jayabrata Chatterjee, spokesperson for Ganpati Greenfields, explains that As an added incentive, there will be a specially choreographed son et lumiere in the open terrace against the ramparts.
Chatterjee is also the creator of the well-researched but exotic myth that is being handed out in the form of expensively illustrated pamphlets, to potential clientele in India and abroad.
Neotia believes in giving concrete shape to his ideas, however far-fetched they might appear. While the Sunderbans project is still an active thought, the Radisson Resort Ffort at Raichak is ready to lay the gangplanks across the moat and receive its first batch of guests.