The leela Group and Qatar’s Al Faisal Group on Sunday signed an agreement to build a five-star hotel near Taj Mahal in Agra with 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Gulf nation. The 250-room hotel, to be built in 30 months, will entail an FDI of about Rs500 crore, leela Group chairman Vivek Nair said after signing the pact with chairman of Al Faisal Group Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani. Vivek Nair said the project will entail 100 per cent FDI.
The agreement was signed after Modi’s interaction with top business leaders of Qatar here in which Sheikh Faisal was also present. The hotel will be built under the brand name ‘Aiana’ and will be the sixth such hotel in India, said Amruda Nair, joint managing director and CEO of Aiana Hotels and Resorts. The hotel will be built on an area of seven acres, just one km from Taj Mahal, Amruda said. “We will be developing a two-hotel complex with a total of 250 rooms. There will 100-room leela Palace and 150 room-Aiana on top of a shared podium...,” she said, adding the brand ‘Aiana’ was launched by her in Qatar one year ago and this will be the eighth such hotel across India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.