Ginger Rail Yatri Niwas hotel launched in New Delhi

New Delhi: Roots Corporation Ltd, the Indian Hotels Company subsidiary that owns the nofrills hotel chain Ginger Hotels, inaugurated Ginger Rail Yatri Niwas.

The company had won the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) tender to renovate and operate Rail Yatri Niwas, located near the New Delhi Railway Station, for a 15 year period.

For renovation, the company has invested Rs 10.5 crore upfront in the property, while it would be shelling out about Rs 8 crore to IRCTC over a period of 15 years, according Railway officials. 'In the first year, IRCTC will receive Rs 32 lakh, Rs 34 lakh in the second year and so on,' the Indian Railways Chairman, Mr K.C. Jena, told presspersons here today.

The Rail Yatri Nivas hotel was originally built in 1988 as part of Indian Railways' efforts to offer hotel rooms to the railway passengers at reasonable prices. The hotel was stripped to its bare shell and renovated in a period of nine months.

The hotel now has 109 rooms 17 rooms with four beds each (with charges at Rs 250 per bed per night), 46 rooms (at Rs 999 per night) and another 46 rooms (at Rs 1,199 per night). 'These rates would be revised annually in consultation with IRCTC,' Mr Prabhat Pani, CEO and Director, Roots Corporation, said.

With real estate prices going up, Roots Corporation is looking at other models such as opening hotels in shopping malls and participating in management contracts. 'We would be inaugurating Ginger Hotel in a mall in Ludhiana and Ahmedabad soon. Moreover, we are looking at management contracts where our partners would invest in the real estate and civil construction, while we would manage the hotel with activities like branding and selling for a revenue share,' Mr Pani said.

The company has already invested Rs 220 crore till this year, and plans to invest another Rs 100 crore in the current year. 'Over the next three-five years, we aim to have 60-70 hotels with about 100 rooms each,' Mr Pani said.