By IANS,
New Delhi : Mumbai-based Zoom Developers has won a contract from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to develop three budget hotels at a proposed investment of Rs.1 billion.
These budget hotels, a part of Rail Ratna project, will come up in Raipur, Bilaspur and Guwahati. The IRCTC has already awarded bids for 23 hotels across the country.
The Zoom Developers-Toshali Sands Group had bid Rs.404 million licence fee for Raipur, Rs.197.9 million for Bilaspur and Rs.292.9 million for Guwahati.
The hotels projects will add 305 hotel rooms in these cities.
According to Ramneet Trehan, head of business development, Zoom Developers: “The work on the hotel will be finished within 18-20 months of getting the possession of land.”
“However, they 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.
Out of the 20 bids announced earlier for the first phase of the project, Zoom Developers-Royal Orchid consortium had won bids for 11 locations, Essel group had won five locations and Signet group had won four.
IRCTC had announced setting up of 100 budget rail hotels across the country. The entire project is estimated to cost over Rs.200 billion adding over 10,000 rooms in the country.
However, because of a controversy between IRCTC and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), on who would head the Rail Ratna hotels project, many bids have been cancelled in the past.