Rajasthan to add 20,000 hotel rooms before Commonwealth Games

New Delhi, July 9: Keeping in view the growing tourist inflow, the Rajasthan Government has drawn UP an ambitious plan to add 20,000 hotel rooms in the state.

Under the new Hotel Policy 2006 launched by the Raj state Government to transform into an investment friendly destination for the hotel sector, it is proposed to provide land for hotels at 50 per cent less the prevelant commercial reserve price.

Besides, the success of the "Palace of Wheels", a royal luxury train introduced by the state Tourism department with the help of Railway Ministry about two decades back to lure tourists, has emboldened the state to run two more such trains on the same lines--Palace on Wheels II and Royal Luxury Train--in the coming years.

Talking to UNI, Rajasthan Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi said, "Rajasthan is now a round the year tourist destination and has witnessed a robust growth of 50 per cent in terms of tourist arrivals every year during the past 2-3 years. The New Policy will help in fulfilling the need to meet the requirement of increasing domestic and foreign tourists coming to the State. Besides, it will also boost state's investments in this sector." "To meet the demand, at least 20,000 more rooms are required to the existing accommodation of 35,000 rooms in various categories of hotels," he said.

The salient features of the New Hotel Policy includes easy availability of land for development of hotels, creation of Land Banks to solve the availability of location for setting up of new hotels, and opening up of public-private joint ventures in the tourism sector.

Mr Zutshi said land would be earmarked for setting up of budget hotels, Mid-market hotels and luxury five star and five star deluxe hotels and special incentive package would be offered to one/two/three star hotels with 100 per cent exemption from land conversion charges and entertainment tax. The concession will, however, be valid till March 2010 only, he added.

The proposal of public-private sector joint ventures is also aimed at bringing up new hotel projects by offering government land by way of equity or revenue sharing.

In addition, Government Dak Bungalows and Rest Houses would also be utilised by the private sector as accommodation units for tourists with the consent of the concerned departments.

The Department of Tourism would be the Nodal agency to ensure speedy implementation of the policy in coordination with various departments, like Jaipur Development Authority and Municipalities.

Mr Zutshi admitted that the success of the Palace on Wheels had emboldened Rajasthan, which pioneered in train tourism, to go in for more royal trains. While Palace on Wheels II would be introduced by 2007, the Royal Luxury Train would be on track by 2008 with an investment of Rs 90 crores. The New Palace of Wheels, he said, would be a little expensive than the existing Palace of Wheels, while the Royal Luxury Train, would be a joint venture between the Rajasthan Government, Railway Ministry, and the East India Hotels Ltd, which runs the Oberoi Chain of Hotels worldwide. It would cater to the need of high-end train travellers from international and national market.

Telling about the success of the Palace of Wheels, he said the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation already had full booking for 2006-07, 2007-08 and 90 per cent booking for 2008-09.

Another tourist train--Heritage on Wheels--RTDC was planning to run in the Jaipur-Bikaner and Shekhawati region-Jaipur in another two to three months. Several states tried their hands on the train but discontinued after the service was found unprofitable. RTDC traced the train abondoned at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh in February. Since the train was found to be in good condition, the RTDC got it on lease by the Railways, he said.

UNI