By IANS,
New Delhi : Mumbai-based Zoom Developers announced Monday that it has won a contract from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) to develop four budget hotels at a proposed investment of Rs.1 billion ($23.8 million).
These hotels, part of the Rail Ratna Project, will come up in Mangalore, Puducherry, Chennai (Egmore) and Coimbatore. Earlier, IRCTC awarded bids for 24 hotels across the country.
“We have won the bid for all four locations to develop budget hotels with a proposed investment of around Rs.1 billion,” said Zoom CEO Rumneek Bawa.
The company has earlier won bids for budget hotels for Raipur, Bilaspur and Guwahati.
“The (construction) work will be finished within 18-20 months of getting the possession of land,” Bawa said.
“However, they (IRCTC) have not issued land possession or concession details of projects to the developers. The process of land acquisition is getting delayed and halting the project,” he added.
While consortia led by Zoom Developers bagged 19 of the 28 bids awarded so far, the rest went to Essel and Signet Groups.
Earlier, IRCTC announced plans to set up 100 budget rail hotels across the country. The entire project is estimated to cost over Rs.200 billion.