ECOTEL status for city's hotel The Rain Tree

Chennai, Apr 19: The city-based five star hotel 'The Rain Tree' was awarded the prestigious ECOTEL certificate by the US-based HVS International today.

With this certification, the hotel is the only 5-star hotel from South India to be certified ECOTEL and the fifth hotel in the country to received this status so far.

Mr Manav Thadani, Managing Director, HVS International told reporters here today that ever since the first property was certified as an ECOTEL hotel way back in 1994, over 1100 hotels, resorts and inns had applied for this certification.

The stringency of the evaluation could best be ascertained by the fact that only 30 hotels in the world had qualified for ECOTEL certification. It was awarded only after satisfying five - 'globes' energy conservation, water conservation, solid waste management, employee environmental education and environmental commitment.

He said five more hotels including one each at Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad would receive the certification within a couple of years.

Mr Subba Reddy, Hotel Managing Director, said he was very proud to receive this certification, that too the first hotel in the whole of South India. He said he was going to put up another hotel project in the city at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore.

He said the new project woudld start by July this year and he would adopt the prescribed 'globes' for receiving ECOTEL status.

UNI