Sahara forays into hospitality business

Mumbai, June 19 (UNI) Sahara Group, a major para-banking player in the country, forayed into the elite hospitality industry by unveiling a 412-room flagship five star super deluxe hotel, 'Sahara Star', here.

This is the first venture announced by Subrata Roy-owned Sahara Group after its exit from the airlines industry this April, when Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways acquired Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore.

''Sahara Star, a dynamic leisure and business hotel, represents the most individualised hospitality experience. It is poised to offer traditional Indian splendour with contemporary Western elagance, coupled with the state-of-the-art facilities,'' Sahara Star CEO Vivek Kumar said, after unveiling the hotel at a glittering ceremony last evening.

However, when asked about the investment that the Group had made in the re-developed Centaur Hotel now Sahara Star, Mr Kumar refused to comment, saying that the process was still continuing.

''It will not be appropriate on my part to share with you the total investment for the simple reason that the project is still in the completion stage,'' he added.

On being asked how many such hotels the Group was planning to build, he replied ''we have some more proposals up our sleeves for expanding the brand.'' However, according to the sources, the Group plans to launch 24 such hotels, including one in Nagpur, within the next one year.

''We have lands at 92 places all across the country, which we would like to develop for our new venture,'' a Sahara Group official said.

UNI