As part of its expansion in hospitality sector, Varun Group on Thursday announced an investment of Rs.200 crore on a five star hotel at Vijayawada and service apartments at 17th Century Dutch township of Bhimili near here.
Varun Group Chairman and Managing Director V. Prabhu Kishore, Director Varun Dev and Hotel Novotel Varun Beach general manager Madhav Bellamkonda told reporters here that the construction of the hotel at Vijayawada with 200 rooms had already started. It is expected to be ready by last quarter of 2017 or first quarter of 2018.
Mr. Prabhu Kishore said that the hotel would cost around Rs.150 crore. The service apartments with 35 rooms, jogging track, swimming, cafeteria and other facilities will be ready by January 2016. He said that they had already developed a sea-facing games village in an area of four acres next to the service apartments with facilities to play night cricket, beach volley and other games.
Varun Group, which has been allotted two acres by APIIC in non-SEZ area between Hill No. 1 and 2 of Rushikonda in Visakhapatnam also has plans to construct two lakh square ft. of IT area with plug and play facility along with 300-room budget hotel, convention hall and other facilities.
Asked when they would take up work on the project, Mr. Prabhu Kishore said since it would involve an investment of at least Rs.300 crore they would wait for the ‘opportune’ time.
Giving details on the performance of Varun Group, he said that they ended 2014-15 with a turnover of Rs.2,400 crore compared to Rs.2,000 crore the previous year. The group is expecting an increase of 10 to 12 per cent during current fiscal.
Their Maruti showrooms and two-wheeler, three-wheeler, Varun JCB and Benz had done exceedingly well during 2014-15 by emerging as largest automobile dealer in volumes in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, they said.
