Mumbai-based Indian Hotels Company Limited has entered a partnership with Kolkata-based hotel owner and developer Ambuja Neotia Group to open 15 hotels over the next five years.
Indian Hotels Company is the parent company of the hotel brand Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces. The 15 hotels under development in IHCL's latest partnership with Ambuja Neotia Group will mostly be branded as Taj hotels or branded villas, according to a news release. Once completed, together both companies will have a portfolio of more than 40 hotels.
In November, IHCL announced it would acquire a majority stake in Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels, a 17-hotel brand with properties across India owned by Ambuja Neotia Group since the end of 2023. That deal closed in January.
In February 2024, IHCL entered a strategic alliance with Tree of Life to add 14 hotels to IHCL’s distribution platform.
As part of the latest "capital light" deal between Indian Hotels Company and Ambuja Neotia Group, the hotels to be developed will include brownfield, greenfield and conversion projects across three Indian states.
Most will come to the state of West Bengal, which will add Taj hotels and resorts in Darjeeling, Lataguri, Rabong and Sunderban. SeleQtions hotels will open in Digha, Raichak and Siliguri, with two SeleQtions-branded properties in Kolkata. A Tree of Life hotel is planned for Lataguri, while a hotel affiliated with the Ginger brand is in development in Haldia. Some of these properties will house Taj-branded villas.
The Indian state of Himachal Pradesh will gain a Taj hotel in Shimla, and the state of Sikkim will see one in Rabong.
Puneet Chhatwal, Indian Hotel Company's managing director and CEO, said the deal enlarged the firm’s reach across India.
“IHCL’s pioneering legacy of building destinations like Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa and [the] Andaman and Lakshadweep islands will now extend to unlocking the tourism potential of the East and Northeast with this agreement,” he said.