The Hindu Business Line : Unity Infra completes Pune star hotel project in a year

Mumbai, Oct. 19 It is national pride when it comes to hosting the Youth Commonwealth Games and in a small way, a Mumbai-based infrastructure company did itself proud by contributing its mite to the nation.

In a record of sorts, Unity Infraprojects Ltd put up the Rs 300-crore, six lakh sq ft star hotel at Pune in a year — from conceptualising to commissioning — for the Games that were held in Pune from October 12 to 18.

The hotel was built to house 1,200 participants and 500 officials from over 70 nations. The 10-storey facility, on six acres of government land, has 208 rooms of three-star rating in one block and 203 rooms of five-star status in the second — named VITS and Orchid.

The Maharashtra Government floated the tender for the project on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis, even as pre-conditions were often altered to suit the Indian Olympic Association directions.

Unity bagged the contract after three rounds of bidding, with many bidders backing out due to the timeline of less than 18 months, in February 2007. Then the company had to weather a public interest litigation petition by a corporator against land use as the site was reserved for public use, leading to work being suspended from May 2007 to September 2007. Work recommenced on September 29, 2007 and was completed this September-end.

“It had been a 24x7 job for a year with 2,500 employees working round the clock to meet the deadline,” said Unity Infraprojects Chairman, Mr K.K. Avarsekar. Fortunately, project clearances came in on priority as it was a State-sponsored project for the Games.

The debt component of Rs 150 crore was raised from banks, Rs 50 crore came in as private equity from Clearwater Capital, and the promoters — Kamat Hotels, BSEL Infrastructure and Unity — pumped in the balance.

Normally, it takes six to eight months to finalise design and obtain necessary clearances to begin construction, said Mr Avarsekar.

It was a difficult task to find a single location for housing the participants as required for security concerns. The Planning Commission officials insisted on a single location instead of multiple hotels and hostels when the State government began preparations for the event, he said.

The promoters have been given a 60-year concession period with an annualised remittance of Rs 2.5 crore to the State Government, apart from an upfront payment of Rs 2.5 crore.

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