In a tough competition of with three leading hotel chains in India, including the Taj group and the Hyatt group, Holiday Inn has won the bid to build a 5-star hotel in the heart of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Bihar's Infrastructural Development Authority (IDA) confirmed the bid last week. The hotel will become operational in 2012.
In the bid, Hyatt was out of the game because of technical reasons. The IDA selected Holiday Inn from the other two hotels, as it confirmed to pay the highest bid of Rs 2.5 crores every month to the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC), as rent. The land will be given to the hotel on a 90-year lease. The agency will have to pay 6.5 crores immediately after the clearance of all the formalities. The proposal is now awaiting the clearance by Bihar’s State Cabinet only, told Rashmi Verma, Bihar's principal secretary - Tourism.
The new hotel is supposed to be built on the Beer Chand Patel Road of Patna, by demolishing 1.2 acres of commercial land that houses the present office-cum-tourist bungalow of the BSTDC. The hotel will have nine floors, with 123 rooms (including seven luxury suites), a 24-hour coffee shop, two restaurants, a swimming pool on its third floor, one restaurant with bar and gymnasium and three ball rooms, each having 400 seating capacity. There are also plans to set up five star hotels in the two heritage cities of Bihar - Bodh Gaya and Rajgir.
