Leela Group Shakes Hand with Qatar to Erect a Hotel Near Taj

DOHA: The popular hospitality giant, Leela Group signs a pact with Qatar’s AI Group in order to erect a five-star hotel near the iconic Taj Mahal. This new with an estimated FDI comprising of Rs. 500 crore.

The luxurious inn is going to be a building of 250 rooms that would probably take a time period of 30 months in its completion and will require an FDI of INR 500 crore, said Vivek Nair, Chairman, Leela Group to PTI after signing the agreement with Chairman of AI Faisal Group, Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim AI Thani.

Sheikh Faisal was one of the guests around in a group of top business leaders of Qatar while the meeting with Modi. The pact was signed after the interaction took place with PM.

The would carry the brand name of ‘Aiana’ and is going to be sixth such hotel in India, confirms, Amruda Nair, Joint Managing Director, and CEO of Aiana Hotels and Resorts. It will be just a kilometer away from Taj Mahal on a seven acres land.

“We will be developing a two-hotel complex with a total of 250 rooms. There will 100-room Leela Palace and 150 room-Aiana on top of a shared podium…,” she said.

‘Aiana’ has been launched in India about a year ago and by the introduction of this hotel, the count adds up to eight across India, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

The hotel will be entitled as ‘Aiana Agra’ and operated by Leela and Aiana, says Amruda.

“We have now gone into asset-like strategy. Developers come to us and say ‘please develop a hotel like Leela Palace or Leela Goa’. So, apart from Agra, we are putting up a hotel in Jaipur and a 1,000-acre property in Chandigarh — a 27-hole Golf course and villas and a 150-room hotel,” said Nair.

“Internationally, we are just about to execute an agreement in Dubai with the royal family there for a hotel facing the Burj Khalifa. It will be a 250-room hotel. Another hotel in business bay”, he added.