Unlisted Bharat Hotels Ltd. will spend Rs 1.5 billion to set up a luxury hotel in the tourist hot-spot desert state of Rajasthan, a top company official said on Tuesday, reports the news agency Reuters.

The proposed 200-room hotel will be situated on a 12,000-square-metre plot in the state capital Jaipur, and is expected to be up and running in 18 months, Lalit Suri, Chairman, Bharat Hotels, said on the sidelines of a tourism industry conference.

"Everyone who comes to Rajasthan goes through Jaipur and there just aren't enough hotels," he said. "Rajasthan has not been fully exploited."

The Rs 1.5-billion investment includes the land acquisition price.

Bharat Hotels bought the plot for the hotel from the state government at the reserve price of Rs 260 million, which, under a new government policy to attract hoteliers in the room-starved state, was pegged at half the current commercial land rate.

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