The club was to have been commissioned by mid-August but has been delayed and is now scheduled to open by the end of the month, will target the corporates of the region. Hotel Blue Diamond is focused primarily at the corporate sector and top business houses of Pune.

The club, located in the basement with a seating capacity for about 90 people, will have access from the lobby of the hotel and will offer an exclusive setting for its members, who will be invited to become members by the management. PIH chief executive officer Rajendra Kelshikar declined to give details of the fee structure or its name and said they had already been approached by over 175 people. The club will have an upper limit of about 400 members.

PIH, which owns and runs the Hotel Blue Diamond in Pune, the City Inn inBaramati and manages the Hotel Pearl in Kolhapur, had an income from operations of Rs 19.99 crore during 1997-98 (Rs 17.02 crore), profit after tax of Rs 2.32 crore (Rs 1.88 crore) and has recommended a dividend of 60 per cent.

The company's annual report has noted that the performance of the Baramati Hotel has been lower than expected. Among the reasons cited for this is the slower than projected growth of industry in the Baramati region. However, with the setting up of some joint ventures, this is expected to change in the current fiscal.