Taj group, Ambuja Neotia tie up to roll out 5 new hotels

At a time when the hospitality sector is struggling to stay afloat, the Taj group has partnered with real estate company Ambuja Neotia Group to launch three new hotels – two in Kolkata and one in Patna. This is in addition to two other hotels in the East – Taj Chia Kutir, Darjeeling and Taj Guras Kutir in Gangtok for which an agreement was signed between the two entities in 2016.

These five projects will cumulatively account for a total of 500 rooms. Ambuja Neotia is investing ₹800 crore to launch these five properties while Taj Group’s parent company, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) has been given the management contracts for these properties.

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL, said, “We are very committed to the Eastern part of India as we believe that it has tremendous potential.

With the announcement today, we are further strengthening our footprint in the region and building on IHCL’s legacy in some of the most commercially and culturally important cities of the East.

More hotels under ‘Taj’ brand

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with three more hotels under the ‘Taj’ brand with IHCL. Taj is globally renowned, and we look forward to bringing their legendary hospitality to all our hotels. This partnership will give a strong impetus to the development of tourism in the Eastern region,” said Mr. Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group.

Taj Chia Kutir in Darjeeling, will open on December 14. The second hotel, Taj Guras Kutir, Gangtok, is scheduled to open by the end of 2022. With the addition of these hotels, IHCL will have 23 hotels across nine States in Eastern India.

All these properties will be branded under IHCL’s flagship brand, the Taj group. HCL will incur marketing and corporate expenses.

Chhatwal said that most of these destinations will be a hub for pleasure in the future, however, they are currently underserved.

“A little less than 10 per cent pre-Covid levels comes from East India currently. We are growing at a rapid rate, and hoping to get to 15 per cent at the earliest. East India is an untapped territory, in the future it will be a hub of business conferences, and we are hoping to be able to tap on to that,” he said.

For Ambuja Neotia, this is a part of ₹1,100-crore investment in the hospitality sector.

Speaking about IHCL’s performance during the pandemic, Chhatwal said the company was seeing some green shoots in the leisure destinations. “We have reached an occupancy level of up to 50-60 per cent of pre covid levels. We hope to reach at least 70-75 per cent by the end of December,” he said.