Kamat Hotels to develop heritage property

As part of its plans to scale up its hotels and restaurant business, Kamat Hotels has entered into a long-lease agreement with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation to develop a fort at Murud Harnai beach in Ratnagiri district as a heritage property under its ‘Gadh' Hotels banner.
The plans will give a further thrust to its hospitality business wherby the Group seeks to double its room count by 2012. The expansion will involve an investment of up to Rs 200 crore, which will be raised through internal accruals and debt.
“Presently the Group has 1,000 rooms. By 2012 this number is expected to be over 2,000,” according to Vithal Kamat, Chairman and Managing Director, KHI. Of the Rs 200 crore it will invest in its expansion, Rs 50 crore will be through internal accruals, while Rs 150 crore will be through borrowings from banks, he said, ruling out raising funds through equity dilution or stake sale.
Mr Kamat said that a while a new Gadh hotel will be established at Murud Harnai, involving an expenditure of Rs 30 crore, work on building an additional 140 rooms at Mohadadhi Nivas in Puri – the first phase just became operational – had also commenced and will be completed in two years' time. Jadhavgarh at Pune, the company's first heritage hotel, was launched in Dec 2007.
KHIL is also building a hotel under its flagship brand – the Orchid Ecotel – in Puri with an investment of Rs 40 crore. Similar sums are being invested on each of refurbishing Orchid Pune into a 5-star property, and setting up an Ecotel at Raipur, Mr Kamat said.
While the company is looking at launching Vits hotels in all major districts in Maharashtra and Lotus resorts at Roha on the Mumbai-Pune Highway and Vengurla, the major thrust will be on building its Vithal Kamat brand into a 100-plus strong chain in the next three years. Currently, the Vithal Kamat Family Restaurant has around 40 outlets and there are eight outlets of the fast food/takeaway joints that have been christened Vithal Kamat Khao-Jao.