Apr. 2, 2008 - NEW DELHI -- It is raining hotels in India, with real estate developers and hospitality majors Emaar MGF, DLF, The Claridges Hotels and Resorts and the InterContinental Hotels Group all announcing plans to open hotels across the country, adding 10,000 rooms in the next three to five years.

India is today facing a shortage of 1,50,000 hotel rooms. Estimates are that over the next two years about 70,000-80,000 rooms will be added in the country, while the addition over the next five years will be over 200,000 rooms.

Emaar MGF announced its partnership with Marriott International to set up 1,000 rooms in the next three years at a cost of $400 million. JW Marriott Hotels will come up in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and a 'Courtyard by Marriott' hotel in Amritsar.

DLF and Hilton Hotels Corporation also announced that they had signed management agreements involving seven new hotels. This marks the second stage in the DLF-Hilton joint venture's plans to build and develop 75 hotels in India in the next seven years.

The new projects named on Tuesday will bring the total number of new hotels under the DLF–Hilton alliance to 16, comprising 3,500 rooms. Of the new properties three will be come up in Delhi, two will come up in Chennai and one each at Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata.

Not to be left behind, the Delhi-based The Claridges is also planning to invest $300 million in the next five years to develop five to seven new properties in India and the neighbouring region. The cities in India where The Claridges is planning new hotels are Hyderabad, Chennai, Udaipur, Pune and Kerala.

The InterContinental Hotels Group also announced that it had 14 new-look Holiday Inn hotels in various stages of development across the country. Accounting for more than 3,700 rooms, these hotels are scheduled to open over the next three years in 11 cities nationwide.

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