The Leela Group and Qatar’s Al Faisal Group today signed an agreement to build a five-star hotel near Taj Mahal in Agra with an FDI of about ₹500 crore.

The 250-room hotel, to be built in 30 months, will entail an FDI of about ₹500 crore, Leela Group Chairman Vivek Nair said after signing the pact with Chairman of Al Faisal Group Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani. The agreement was signed after Modi’s interaction with top business leaders of Qatar here in which Sheikh Faisal was also present.

The hotel will be built under the brand name ‘Aiana’ and will be the sixth such hotel in India, said Amruda Nair, Joint Managing Director and CEO of Aiana Hotels and Resorts. The hotel will be built on an area of seven acres, just 1 km from Taj Mahal, Amruda said. “We will be developing a two-hotel complex with a total of 250 rooms. There will 100-room Leela Palace and 150 room-Aiana on top of a shared podium,” she said.

Leela had launched the brand ‘Aiana’ in India about a year ago and this will be the eighth such hotel across India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Vivek Nair said the project will entail 100 per cent FDI. Amruda said Sheikh Faisal is keen to support the brand with additional properties in other locations such as Europe and Maldives as well. “So we continue to look at opportunities.”

Nair said Leela also has a plan, on its own, to build a 60-room hotel in the Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in 24 months.

“Internationally, we are just about to execute an agreement in Dubai with the royal family there for a hotel facing the Burj Khalifa. It will be a 250-room hotel. Another hotel in the business bay,” he said.

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