Itc Hotels Lines Up 2 Projects

ITC Hotels is poised to set up two new hotels --a Rs 250-crore hotel in Bangalore and a Rs 60 crore hotel in New Delhi as part of its Rs 1,000 crore perspective plan for the next five years.

According to ITC Hotels sources, the project coming up in Bangalore will consist of 500 rooms while the New Delhi project will comprise 80 rooms. The Bangalore hotel, however, will be the group's second property in the city.

The two new hotels will be the latest additions to the long list of hotels planned by the company. As part of the Rs 1,000 crore investment plan recently chalked out by the ITC board, ITC Hotels has already started work on two large hotels, a 350-room hotel in Mumbai involving a cost of Rs 450 crore, due to be commissioned by end of 2000 and the other in Parel, having a 300-room accommodation at a cost of Rs 150 crore. Landuse process is underway for this project. ITC Hotels point out that all the projects shall take four years for completion. The ITC Hotels board will be meeting on May 15, to decide on the company's annual financial performance.

Half yearly results for ITC Hotels for the year 1997 show a 9 per cent increase in turnover at Rs 54.90 crore and an 11 per cent hike in profit after tax at Rs 6.61 crore, which is considered satisfactory in an atmosphere of general slowdown.

According to official sources, the company is expected to marginally better last years' performance. In the year ended March 31, 1997, profit after tax was Rs 31.05 crore.

Besides the above four projects, ITC Hotels is also working on projects in Calcutta, Jaisalmer and Calicut. For the Calcutta project, pre-project activities have already commenced.

The hotel is expected to commence operations by 2001 at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

The Jaisalmer hotel is still at on the drawing board and is expected to be operational by end 2000 at a project cost of Rs 10 crore.