It was in the same area that 12 big hotels had been envisaged by Delhi'splanners and following a long and contentious battle, the Supreme Courtpermitted only the Grand Hyatt to go ahead with its construction. And afterfive years, the building is ready for opening end-January, positioningitself as a premium hotel for the international traveller.

Considering the location, the 390-Grand Hyatt had been designed to be alow-rise building with just six floors and sprawling Mughal-style landscapedgardens. Says Marina Bullivant, director of communications (Asia/Pacific),Hyatt International Hotels, ``The architecture has been kept in tune withthe Mughal history of Delhi and the gardens have been landscaped to resemblethe Mughal splendour including a very large unusually-shaped swimmingpool.''

Inside, the lobby has a muted touch with pine wood panelling and blackmarble floors with a vaulted ceiling with natural skylights. ``The vaultedceiling has been taken from traditional Mughal structures,'' she says. Thelobby also has large window frontages looking onto the gardens which havecascading waterways.

But at the same time, the hotel management is keen on giving it aneo-millennium look, instead of bogging it down with too much of traditionalarchitectural details. ``So the rooms have furniture that have classy simplelines with a neat finish instead of heavy furniture,'' she says. In fact,the rooms have been planned with minimum use of doors so as to give therooms a more airy feel. For example, the bathroom doors are all slidingdoors and to separate the cistern area from the dressing area the slidingwardrobe door doubles up as the toilet door. ``We have separated the showerarea and the tub, too. Usually the tub and the shower area are the same inmost hotels, but we have two distinct areas here,'' points out Bullivant.

The hotel will be offering the normal rooms at $145 up to May 2000 as aninaugural discount tariff. ``After that we will implement the Hyatt roomrate system, where the computer generates an offer for the day, which is thecheapest deal that a guest can get,'' says Bullivant.

The Grand Hyatt in Delhi is the first in the series of Hyatt group hotelsthat are slated to open in India and Nepal. The group had plans to open twohotels in Mumbai, two in Calcutta, one in Goa and one in Nepal by 2004.``Since India has been one of the countries where the economy has not beenhit by the Asian crisis and shows signs of rapid growth, we have decided tomake India as our target for the near future,'' says Bullivant.

The Grand Hyatt, other than giving itself a business traveller tag wants tobe a hotel with a difference. ``It is more like a business hotel with resortfacilities,'' Bullivant says. It will have a fully equipped gym andextensive spa facilities that include a large swimming pool, jogging track,tennis courts, massage and and treatment rooms which will providetraditional massage treatments used in Indian forms of medicine and someChinese and Japanese forms too.

The food and beverage (F&B) department is also hoping to give the seven F&Boutlets a twist to make them different. The Grand Cafe, which will be thehotel's coffee shop, provides a panoramic view of the garden courtyard with8-metre high windows. It will have a buffet which will be more like an a lacarte, with the show kitchen chefs tossing up the dish together after youhave chosen it.

All the restaurants will have open kitchens. The Indian restaurant, Carawaywill have tandoori cuisine but here too the chefs will experiment by usingsome unusual marinades like a Thai red curry instead of the normal tandoorimarinade. The hotel will also have Japanese restaurant called Enoki whichwill serve Yakitori cuisine (akin to our own kebabs). There will also be arestaurant offering European cuisine with a bakery attached and a winecellar that provides a dramatic setting for a private dining room.

Grand Hyatt's Cascades will be the tea lounge at the lobby which will bedifferent by offering the largest range of coffees and teas available in theworld. The bar will be the Whiskey Bar, which will have an emphasis onsingle malts, bourbons and scotch, keeping in mind Delhiities penchant fordrinking this golden-coloured liquor.

Other than these facilities, the hotel will also have banqueting andconference facilities but would like to lay its emphasis on its resortfacilities. ``We are like a grand hotel, without the grossness of beinggrand but a more subtle and understated grandness,'' says Bullivant.