After automobile units, apparel units, IT companies and a school, it's now a hotel venture at Mahindra World City. Holiday Inn Express — a focused mid-scale full service brand — is being brought to Mahindra World City by Duet India Hotels.

The proposed 140-room hotel, would involve an investment of Rs 80 crore and is expected to be up and running by mid 2013.

The company at present has three properties (Holiday Inn Express) under various stages of construction at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Indore.

$200 million raised

Duet India Hotels has raised $200 million from various financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs to invest in hotel projects in India. Global hospitality major, InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), too, has invested $30 million in this venture. Of the total corpus, the company has earmarked $145 million for a chain of 20 Holiday Inn Express hotels across various cities.

According to Mr Navneet Bali, Chief Investment Officer of Duet India Hotels, the company would go in for over 50 per cent debt.

All these hotels are to be managed by IHG.

As of now, the company has invested around $50 million in two upscale luxury hotels — Four Points by Sheraton — in Jaipur and Pune, which were launched early this year.

Fielding a range of questions, Mr Chris Moloney, Chief Operating Officer (South West Asia), InterContinental Hotels Group, said this is the right time to invest and expand the Group's footprint in India as the country is experiencing severe shortage of hotel rooms, “more particularly at the mid-market level.”

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