Reliance Industries has bought two hotels in Jamnagar city to accommodate top executives associated with its ambitious Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) petrochemicals and refinery special economic zone project.
The move by the country's largest private sector company comes a couple of months after Essar, which is setting up its refinery, took over Hotel Orbit near Jamnagar and renamed it Oil Club.
Reliance sealed the deal for Hotel Golden Crown in Jamnagar and Regal Palace at Moti Khavdi near the refinery complex outside Jamnagar city last fortnight, setting in motion a flurry of activity in Jamnagar's real estate market. A top RIL source confirmed the deal.
The first phase of RIL's refinery project with 30 million tonne capacity was the golden phase for the real estate market of Jamnagar, which later went into a dull phase when RIL created its own residential infrastructure and shifted most of the top management there.
By the time RIL created its own residential colony, Jamnagar hoteliers had created lots of properties in anticipation of more business.
Currently, Jamnagar city has seven medium to large size hotels with occupancy rate as low as 20 to 25 guests at a time. However, the RIL and Essar refinery work have pushed up the requirement for residential complexes in the city.
RIL owns a number of apartments, which were lying vacant for some time, but are now full following its SEZ plan and subsequent rise in its refinery manpower.
Once the SEZ plan is implemented, RIL is expected to have over 70,000 workers and around 3,000 to 4,000 middle level and senior executives in Jamnagar. The company has started work on expansion of its residential colony just adjacent to its existing one to accommodate new staff.
The extension of residential complex will take some time and till then, hotels in Jamnagar and between Jamnagar and Bed village near the refinery complex would again experience boom time.
Essar has its residential complex coming up on the way to its refinery unit, the first phase of which will be commissioned in July this year.
According to Essar executives, the residential colony will have capacity to accommodate around 360 families and it will be ready along with the first phase of the refinery.