Umak Investment to set up chain of hotels in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, May 31 (UNI) New Delhi based Umak Investment Company Ltd will set up a chain of hotels in major tourist destination in Orissa with an investment of Rs.350 crore.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between Umak Investment Chairman cum Managing Director Kameswar Kapoor and State Tourism Secretary A K Tripathy today in presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Tourism Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.

The Umak group which now operates the Redisson Hotels in Delhi and Varanasi, has proposed to set up both five star and three star hotels in Orissa.

Official sources said during the first phase the company would set up hotels in Bhubaneswar, Konark and Satpada with an investment of Rs.110 crore. The investment would further increase to Rs.350 crore with hotels in Puri, Barkul and other important tourist places.

Orissa has witnessed an increase of nearly 12 per cent of domestic and foreign tourist inflow this year in compare to the previous year following a vigorous campaign launched in both india and abroad.

The state government, is anticipating a 15 per cent growth in the number of visiting tourist next year. The increasing traffic to the state had necessitated the establishment of more hotels in the major tourist destinations like Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar.

Taking advantage of the liberal policy of the government and decision to declare hotel as an industry in India, a lot of established hotels groups, had shown keen interest to set up hotels in the state.

They included Roots Corporation of India, Tatas, Laxmi Fraklin Group and Sinclairs.

The Roots Corporation's hotel in Bhubaneswar is almost nearing completion. The company has located land at Konark and Paradip to establish hotels.

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