Taj set to open budget hotel in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram -- The Taj group of Hotels is all set to open its first budget hotel in Kerala near the Technopark here Friday.

The hotel is being built by a subsidiary of the Taj group called Roots Corporation Ltd, which has planned 100 such hotels across the country. It would be the group's sixth budget hotel in India.

The hotel, situated on a one-acre plot, is complete with 100 air-conditioned rooms, modern restaurants, ATMs, cyber cafes, banquets and conference halls at an approximate total investment of Rs.300 million.

The hotel is viewed as a boon for the large number of foreign visitors to the Technopark who until now had to stay in the heart of the capital city. Top Information Technology experts have been unable to travel to the Technopark several times due to workers' strikes being called in the state.

The Technopark campus, situated on the outskirts of the capital, has undergone massive infrastructure development over the years. It employs 12,500 people in about 105 IT firms located in the campus.

The hotel had run into trouble when V.S. Achuthanandan, the then leader of opposition and now chief minister, had alleged that the government had allotted land to the group using unfair and corrupt means.

State Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is to inaugurate the hotel.