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Radisson Plaza to come up in Kolkata

Parul Gupta in New Delhi

The fruits of divestment have started showing up. The erstwhile Kolkata Ashok is all set to be called Radisson Plaza, which is a notch higher than even the Radisson brand in the US-based Carlson Hospitality's portfolio. It is going to be the first Radisson Plaza in the country.

Also, the hotel will be the first of the 19 India Tourism Development Corporation properties, which were divested to the private sector, to receive an international branding.

None of the other 18 properties are being marketed under an international tag name.

The Kolkata property was bagged by the MBD Group for Rs 20.01 crore (Rs 200 million). After acquiring the property, the MBD group has tied up with Carlson Hospitality to run the hotel.

"The hotel is being renovated at present and will be marketed as Radisson Plaza within a month-and-a-half. We have also appointed Hafeez Contractor as an architect for building an additional block in the hotel which will take care of the banqueting facilities, more food and beverage outlets and also some additional room inventory," Sonika Malhotra, executive director of MBD group, said.

She, however, refused to elaborate on the investment that will be required for another block in the hotel.

The MBD Group had earlier announced that it will build three more hotel properties at Noida, Jallandhar and Ludhiana.

The Noida property will be marketed as Radisson and is expected to be launched in February next year.

Malhotra said the group will focus on the other two properties after the Noida Radisson starts operations.

Meanwhile, Carlson Hospitality Worldwide announced the launch of the sixth Radisson hotel at Varanasi.

The US-based hotel chain plans to have 18 more Radissons and Country Inns & Suites by the year 2005.

The Varanasi hotel, which is owned by Bhadohi Hotels, has been built with an investment of Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million).

Bhadohi Hotels has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Unitech Ltd and plans to have three more Radissons at Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra.

Among all the international hotel chains, Carlson is the most aggressively growing chain in the country.

With a Radisson Plaza in place, it is the only international chain with all its brands present in the country.

The chain had a Regent hotel in Mumbai along with Lokhandwala, which was recently taken over by the Taj Group and rebranded as Taj Lands End.

"With the end of that relationship, we definitely need to have a Regent in India very soon," Carlson Hospitality India Inc senior vice president KB Kachru said.

He added that the chain was in talks with a couple of players but a final decision has not been taken as yet.

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