Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL) has announced an agreement with the Ambuja Neotia Group to manage three Taj hotels — two in Kolkata and one in Patna — which would add to its east India presence. IHCL will run these hotels through management contracts. The Ambuja Neotia Group is building two other hotels in the east, – Taj Chia Kutir, Darjeeling, West Bengal which will open in December and Taj Guras Kutir and Gangtok which will open in 2022.
A hotel at Ambuja City Centre, Kolkata with 147 keys, has been in operation for over 10 years and is slated to undergo extensive refurbishments before it re-opens as a Taj hotel in 2021.
The second property at Eco Park, located in New Town, is a 57-room hotel overlooking Eco Park’s 112-acre water body. The resort hotel with state-of-the-art banqueting and convention facilities spread across 50,000 sq. ft. is slated to open in 2021.
In Patna the hotel is coming up at Ambuja City Centre which is close the airport. This will be the first branded luxury hotel in the city. The hotel will have 126 rooms and will be the ideal choice for conventions and meetings. It will open in December 2022.
These five properties with an estimated investment of ₹800 crore by Ambuja Neotia Group will culminate to a total of 500 rooms for IHCL.
IHCL which already has an inventory of 1,000 rooms in eastern states has plans to double the capacity in 4 years out of 500 rooms have been committed through the association with Ambuja.
Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, IHCL, said, “The Eastern part of India has tremendous potential. With this announcement, we are further strengthening our footprint in the region and building on IHCL’s legacy in some of the most commercially and culturally important cities of the East. These signings also cement our relationship with the Ambuja Neotia Group.”
“We always wanted to be associated with IHCL and are delighted to extend our partnership with three more hotels under the ‘Taj’ brand . Taj is globally renowned, and we look forward to bringing their legendary hospitality to all our hotels. This partnership will give a strong impetus to the development of tourism in the Eastern region,” said Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group.
