Essar Realty Holdings, the real estate division of the Essar Group, has successfully won a bid that involves the construction of a Rs 500-crore five-star hotel, utility centre, and a multiplex at the planned Multimodal International Hub Airport in Nagpur.
In a strategic move, the realty firm has joined forces with the US-based hospitality giant, Accor Hospitality, to both develop and manage this ambitious hotel project.
Several months ago, the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC)—the designated agency tasked with overseeing the development of the air cargo hub in Nagpur—invited bids for the hotel and conventional hall project. Essar Realty submitted its bid through its subsidiary company, Yojna Realties, competing against the G L Raheja group, which promoted Raheja Constructions.
Chirag Ramakrishna, managing director of Essar Realty, remarked, "The MADC deal would reinforce our long-term commitment to the realty business as we continue to look at more opportunities in the realty sector."
The envisioned five-star hotel will occupy a sizeable 10-acre tract adjacent to National Highway VII along the Nagpur-Wardha road. Notably, the hotel is designed with a capacity to accommodate 1,000 guests and will include service apartments for executives requiring longer-term stays. The MADC project marks the second-largest property deal Essar Realty has concluded within the last six months, following its prior acquisition of Peninsula Land’s (PLL) Kurla commercial project for approximately Rs 1,200 crore.
In this earlier transaction, Peninsula Land sold around 9 lakh square feet of commercial space at its upcoming Peninsula Tech Park project to Essar Realty Holdings. The anticipated Nagpur airport project, which commands an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, is projected to be completed within four years, thereby enhancing India’s air cargo handling capabilities significantly.
The growth of air cargo traffic in India from 7.97 lakh tonnes in the fiscal year 1999-2000 to 8.4 lakh tonnes in 2001-02 and surpassing 10.6 lakh tonnes currently, underscores the importance of such developments. In a complementary effort, MADC has already established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Deccan Cargo to oversee operations at the cargo hub within the international airport in Nagpur.