ITC to build Fortune hotel on own land

ITC Hotels, which is operating all sub brands of hotels and properties under its subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels through partnerships and joint ventures, plans to construct three hotels on its own next fiscal.

The hotels may come up in Kolkata and Bangalore at an estimated combined investment of Rs 120 crore.

"In the last 12 years, Fortune Hotels has been operating under the management route. We tie up with some developer or hotel interested in Fortune sub brands. We were following this model since we had fair knowledge of the industry. Now, we find that the time has come for us to develop our own properties," ITC Hotels Senior Vice President (Operations) Pawan Verma said.

Each of the three hotels planned will have at least 100 rooms. "These hotels will come up on land owned by ITC Ltd. The land has been made available to us as the cigarette factories are being either shut or moved elsewhere. The hotels will be operational before 2010," he pointed out.

The three hotels are part of the company's nationwide expansion plans. At present, Fortune, a Rs 240 crore brand, has 40 hotels (3,100 rooms) under its management control across 34 cities. "At present, 20 of these hotels are operational while 20 are underway, in various stages of construction and refurbishment. It is our aim to operate in 65 cities with 6,000 rooms over the next three years," Fortune Park Hotels President Suresh Kumar said.

The sub brands under Fortune include Select, Park, Inn, Resort, Apartments, Faith, Spot, Lodge, Indoville, Adventure and Highway.

Under the Fortune Highway sub-brand, two hotels are coming up on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway.

"So far, we have signed an agreement with one partner. We are in the process of identifying a partner for the second project," Kumar added.

Similarly, it is developing a Fortune Lodge hotel in Madhya Pradesh.

Fortune hotels are being opened in Gurgaon, Siliguri, Hyderabad, Pune, Navi Mumbai and Kochi shortly. Hotels are also being developed in Kolkata, Shirdi, Vapi, Pune and Vishakhapatnam, Suresh said.