IHG to set up a hotel in Chennai

Chennai: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the operators of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels, is to set up a Holiday Inn in Estancia, an integrated township coming up near Chennai.

Announcing the plan, Mr Paul Logan, Vice-President, Development, Southern Asia and Korea, IHG, said Holiday Inn Estancia, paves the way for the re-entry of the Holiday Inn chain into Chennai.

IHG will operate the 200-room, 75-suite, Holiday Inn Estancia, to be developed by L&T at a cost of Rs 150 crore through its joint venture, L&T Arun Excello Commercial Projects Pvt Ltd, which is setting up the township. Estancia is an 82-acre integrated township with residential and commercial space and an IT SEZ coming up 35 km south of Chennai on GST Road (NH 45).

Mr Logan told newspersons that this would be the 15th Holiday Inn in India and a reintroduction of the brand into Chennai, where it was earlier present in the 1970s. The hotel is expected to be operational by 2011, according to the developers.

IHG operates 1,400 Holiday Inn hotels across the world and has a total of over 4,000 hotels under its operation and 1,700 are under construction.

Mr Logan declined to take any questions on the project.

Mr S. Hariharan, Vice President – Developmental Projects, L&T Ltd, said the work is on in the first phase of the 41-acre residential project where 700 apartments are coming up out of the total planned 1,900 apartments. The other components include a 3-million sq ft IT SEZ spread over 29-acres and a 4-lakh sq ft retail mall with a multiplex. The company has tied up with Vidya Mandir, a leading school in Chennai to operate a school in Estancia.

One IT tower would be ready by the year-end – the company has created a 20,000 sq ft incubation space, a temporary facility, for IT companies to set up shop while the SEZ is coming up, he said.