AJU Group of Japanese Hotels expands its footprint, wins bid to develop 5-star hotel in Dholera SIR, Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR: AJU Ryokan NCR Private Limited – an entity of AJU Group of Japanese Hotels with nine hotels across the country has taken a giant step to set up a 5-star hotel facility involving over Rs. 100 crore investment in Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR). Located in Gujarat about 100km from the major industrial base Ahmedabad, DSIR is an upcoming Greenfield smart city, previously known as a Harappan-era ancient port city.

The Japanese hospitality major won the competitive auction bid for a plot measuring over 12,000 sq meters (three acres) in DSIR. The bid amount is estimated to be around Rs.6 crores. A total of 228 acres have been dedicated to tourism and recreational activities in the SIR. However, currently, there are no functional industrial or business units within the SIR.

Besides its Japan-only hotels Gurugram and Manesar (Haryana), and Neemrana (Rajasthan), the AJU Group of Hotels already marks its presence in Ahmedabad and Vithlapur (Gujarat). At Mandal Becharaji, it provides service to the Japanese representatives of Maruti Suzuki Limited at its 110-key 4-star hotel facility.

While commenting on the bold step taken by the company, the group promoters Inder Yadav, Managing Director and Prakash Yadav, Director, said, “Gujarat is the state of vast opportunities and scaling industrial and economic landscapes in the wake of upcoming foreign investments. The DSIR is poised to be developed as the jewel in the crown of Gujarat in time to come keeping in mind the kind of massive investment various business groups such as Vedanta, RENEW, Foxconn, and many others are likely to bring here.”

As regards the hotel site the company has won in the auction bid, Prakash Yadav said the company would invest over Rs. 100 crores to develop a 5-star hotel facility of the international standard for the expats business community including Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, and others. “We plan to develop a 200-key hotel in phases as the DSIR is all set to witness a large-scale influx of foreigners visiting the region.”

The group also owns a Japanese-special Kaiten-zushi (回転寿司) restaurant NAGOMI (なごみ) Family dining in Gurugram.   

Recently the Dholera Special Investment Region Development Authority (DSIRDA) issued an e-auction notice of plot 307 (part) falling in the High Access Corridor Zone for developing a hotel. Three of the many submitted online applications were determined to be eligible. This would be the first plot allotted to the hospitality industry in the region, which has become a key location for business and urban development,” said a DSIRA statement.

The state government authorities are upbeat on this development and have termed it a landmark development.

“This (successful auction of hotel site) has marked a new beginning for the development of Dholera, as it’s the first investment in the hospitality industry. Dholera SIR already has the best infrastructure with utilities benchmarked toward the best in the world. This will create the ideal hospitality required for various industries, which are keen to set up manufacturing units at Dholera. This also marks the competitive bidding process and will increase the confidence of the investors,” said a state government statement after the completion of the bidding process.

The Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) will be the first initiative from the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) to create a linear zone of industrial clusters and nodes to be developed in the influence area of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

DSIR has been planned over an extensive area of land measuring approximately 920sqkm and encompassing 22 villages of the Dholera Taluka in the Ahmedabad District. This will be by far the largest of investment nodes planned along the influence of DFC in the DMIC region. This node is strategically located between the industrial cities of Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Bhavnagar urban agglomerations.

The nearest international airport is at Ahmedabad, and the Government of Gujarat through the Dholera International Airport Company Limited (DIACL) has plans to develop another international airport in the north-east of the proposed investment region. NICDC Limited with the support of DSIRDA, plans to create an economically and socially balanced new-age city with world-class infrastructure, the highest quality-of-life standards, and sustainability in the urban form. This new-age city aims to have a sustainable urban transportation system within and mobile/efficient regional connectivity with neighbouring cities and the rest of the country.