Hilton hotels to come up in Kolkata in 2-3 years

Kolkata, Jun 8(UNI) US-based Hilton Hotels will develop two hotels in Kolkata in joint venture with the real estate group DLF.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, DLF Home Developers Ltd Chief Financial Officer Surojit (Babu) Basak said, ''We plan to open two hotels under Hilton brands--Hilton Garden Inn, amid market segment hotel, and Homewood Suites, which are service apartments, entailing an investment of around Rs 500 crore. The hotels would have 600 rooms altogether.

''We have already invested Rs 150 crore in the project for land acquisition. The rest Rs 350 crore will be invested in construction work,'' he added. DLF would soon start construction work for this project which would come up in Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

The hotels would be operational in three years, he added.

The US-based Hilton Hotels is looking at ten-fold increase in the number of hotel property in India. Hilton Hotels would also open hotels in Delhi, Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa and Kolkata. Homewood Suites, the longstay brand in Hilton's portfolio, would debut at Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad.

The agreement with the DLF Group is exclusive for three brands in the Hilton portfolio--Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites. Hilton-DLF JV has identified 20 sites for hotel projects across the country.

UNI