Leela, Four Seasons Line Up Chennai Venture

Hotel Leelaventure, part of the Leela group is all set to build a Rs 250-crore business class deluxe hotel project in collaboration with Four Seasons in Chennai.

This follows an earlier attempt to buy a plot of land owned by Coke India in the heart of the city which has been now called off. Leelaventure is currently negotiating for a prime property near the beach in Chennai to build a convention centre-cum-business class deluxe hotel.

The Leela group is keen to locate the proposed hotel project in Chennai close to the beach area. Since the existing environmental laws prevent construction of a hotel project to less than 500 metre from the sea, Leelaventure plans to approach the government to relax the rules.

 

Were negotiating for a 12-acre land near the beach in Chennai; the hotel project is likely to be a convention centre with business class suites for accommodation, C P Krishnan Nair, Leela group chairman, said.

The deluxe hotel is expected to have about 300 business class suites.

The current rules which insist on maintaining a minimum distance of 500 metre from the beach dont tally with international norms. We expect the government to relax the rule to a distance of 200 metre. Many countries have accepted a distance of 100 metre norm for hotels close to the sea, Nair said.

Nair approached prime minister, Deve Gowda, to ease the existing environmental norms when the latter laid the foundation stone of the proposed Leela Palace, Four Seasons Hotel,in Bangalore on Saturday.

The prime minister showed concern on knowing the hiccups being faced by several projects in the country in building a good hotel close to the beach, Nair said.

Citing the current shortage of guest rooms in India, he said if the laws are relaxed, the countrys target of achieving 10 million tourists by 2000 will be made easier. The Leela group owns and operates the two luxury hotels, the Leela, Mumbai and the Leela Beach, Goa. The group has announced a mega plan to build the first `seven star luxury hotel project near Bangalore airport in Karnataka with an investment of Rs 250 crore.

Leela Palace in Bangalore follows the groups exclusive collaboration with Four Seasons, which plans to set up upscale hotels in Goa, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai before the end of the century.

The Bangalore project will have 300 suites and is expected to be completed in early 1999. Like its other ventures, Leela Palace will have Bob Clark of California to develop a landscape garden.

Keeping in mind Bangalores information technology industry, the group is also planning to locate a 5000-seated capacity convention centre at Whitefield near Bangalore where the Information Technology Park (ITP) is coming up now.