The Hindu Business Line : HCI expects to more than double its turnover

AIR INDIA subsidiary Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) has estimated that it can more than double its turnover from Rs 55 crore to Rs 110 crore in the next one year as its Centaur hotels in Delhi and Srinagar are doing brisk business.

Official sources told Business Line that the management was working towards getting another 50 rooms operational in Srinagar to meet the growing tourist demand.

"The hotel can generate an annual revenue of more than Rs 5 crore. The demand for rooms is so great that we are already reporting 80 per cent occupancy for the months of September and October this year," officials said.

The Group has estimated that by incurring an expenditure of Rs 10 crore, which includes spending Rs 4 crore on upgrading the flight kitchen in Mumbai and another Rs 6 crore for doing up a similar kitchen in Delhi, it could also help generate additional revenues of about Rs 25-30 crore annually.

In the same way, it feels that a minor investment for upgrading and making more rooms available in the market at the Delhi hotel will also help generate additional revenue for the chain.

HCI as a group has five hotels, including two Centaur hotels in Mumbai and one each in Delhi, Rajgir and Srinagar. While the properties in Mumbai and Rajgir have already been divested, the process for divesting Delhi has also been started.

"If the divestment process is to proceed, then there is no need to pump in funds. However, if the divestment process is not to go ahead then a small induction of funds could see more earnings flowing into the states `treasury," sources said.

In the past few years, the Group has managed to bring down its losses. While HCI reported a loss of Rs 36 crore during 2001-02, the losses came down to Rs 5 crore during 2003-04 despite the payout of Rs 15 crore towards a voluntary retirement scheme.