The Rail Yatri Niwas was built in 1988 to offer accommodation to train passengers at reasonable prices. On a PPP model, this hotel has been given to Roots Corp, for 15 years on a revenue share basis. The company has renovated this place at a cost of Rs 105 million and now is aiming at several other such properties in the NCR.
The hotel with several modern facilities for basic comfort will be available for a paltry Rs.1199 inclusive of sales tax ($ 28) with half the rooms at Rs.999 ($23.50) giving an excellent value for money proposition.
So far, investment in the Indian expansion has been Rs 2.50 billion ($60 million)
Roots CEO Prabhat Pani said: "My wish list is to have five to 10 Ginger hotels in the NCR with government support in places like Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad."
He also added that, "If we get good support, we would like some of these properties here to become operational before the Commonwealth games in 2010." Ginger has 12 properties across the country and this number will swell to 15 in next two months with the opening of hotels in Delhi, Goa and Ludhiana. In North India, the group will also consider entering Lucknow, Faridabad, Ajmer, Noida, Baddi, Kota, Bhilwara, Jodhpur and Gurgaon.
The Ginger Hotels group plans to launch 60 to 70 properties in India, within the next three to four years. The company has adopted an innovative model of refurbishing existing properties, instead of buying land for new hotels, which has become prohibitively expensive.
After running the premium Taj hotels for over a century the Tatas' Indian Hotels has recently entered the budget sector through their subsidiary, Roots Corp. |