Ambica Krishna, chairman of the Ambica group, said the company is in the process of locating and buying land for its proposed hotel projects in Hyderabad, Vizag, Vijayawada and Bangalore.

The Ambica group is involved in real estate, film-production and wind power apart from its 50-year-old flagship company, the Rs 30-crore Ambica Agarbattis and Aroma Industries based in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh.

The seven-floor hotel in Chennai will have two conference halls, a bar with the country (western) style ambience, a beauty parlour and two restaurants. One of them will have a south Indiantheme with a purely vegetarian restaurant and will have a separate kitchen. "This is to cater to the sentiments of our vegetarian clientele," said the general manager of Ambica Empire CJ Wilkins.

The hotel will have interiors reminiscent of 16-17th century architecture of England. There is also a plan to have a floor of ten `concept suites', where each room will reflect the culture of a specific Indian state.

Tourism Finance Corporation of India is contributing Rs 3.6 crore to the total project cost. A sum of Rs 3 crore is given by the Union Bank of India and promoters are pitching in Rs 5.40 crore. The company is negotiating with various banks and financial institutions for the remaining funds.

Krishna says the company has decided not to tie-up with any hotel management chain. In fact, he has plans to promote `Ambica'as a brand by itself and take hotels on franchise at a later stage.

"We are confident of doing 70 per cent occupancy on our own. We have market strategies to tap the local market, fromwhere 75 per cent of a hotel's occupancy comes," said Krishna. For the rest, the company has exclusive agreements with travel agents representing them in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The Chennai hotel plans to price its rooms much lower than the other hotels in the category at Rs 1000 to Rs 1200 per day. The hotel expects to break-even in six-seven years at 75 per cent occupancy.