Business - Leela to add 7 luxury hotels

Hotel Leelaventure plans to add seven new luxury hotels and 2,000 rooms in the next five years, a top company official said.
“We plan to set up seven new luxury hotels at Udaipur, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Agra, Pune and Chennai over the next three to five years,” Hotel Leelaventure Chairman C P Krishnan Nair told reporters here.
“We will invest Rs 2,000 crore to add 2,000 rooms at these new hotels,” Nair said, adding that it would be financed through internal accruals and bank loans.
“Over the last twelve months, we focused on our dynamic growth and the expansion plans of our deluxe portfolio of palaces, hotels and resorts into key destinations of India. We will also focus on the improvement of our existing facilities,” he said.
The Leela Hotel and Residency in Gurgaon and Leela Palace at Udaipur are being prepared for opening in FY09, while The Leela Palace at New Delhi will be completed before October 2010, he said.
“Our development in Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and as and when we acquire an appropriate plot in Kolkata will complete our pan-India presence,” he said.
The company is also planning to set up a 300-room hotel in Mumbai. The land for the same has been leased from the Airport Authority of India and work would start soon, he said.
Its floating casino at Goa has also become operational, Nair said.
The company was also keen on developing an airport in Cannanore, Kerala. The state government (under former Chief Minister E K Nayanar) had acquired 300 acres, but another 1,000 acres is required to develop the airport project, Nair said.
Nair hoped that the present government would provide necessary clearances to commence the project.
Leelaventure has already tied-up with Singapore-based Changi Airport to develop the project, he said.
The company is in talks with Etihad Airlines for setting up a MRO facility at this airport, he said. The company is also planning to set up a catering college in Kerala which would be set up as a separate company, he said.
Commenting on the slowdown in the economy, he said, “We have to take into account the recent economic slowdown, unabated inflation and acceleration in oil price which will have a global impact on cost of travel and tourism.”
“We are confident that we are prepared for the turbulent economic phase ahead and that the luxury hotel segment will continue to grow,” Nair said.