‘ITC Sonar Bangla’, which aims to be Asia’s finest super-deluxe hotel and a pioneering world-class business resort, was formally inaugurated today by the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr. Jyoti Basu, who had laid the foundation stone of the Hotel in January 2001, was the Guest of Honour at the inaugural function. A entire galaxy of state ministers and bureaucrats, an array of distinguished invitees, senior ITC managers and the media witnessed the inauguration.

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 240 crores, the Hotel has 240 super deluxe rooms. The Hotel’s infrastructure is capable of supporting an additional 200 rooms. Keeping its corporate finger on the market pulse, ITC will add more rooms and augment conference facilities as demand inevitably picks up with India’s increased participation in global trade and Kolkata’s evolution as the ‘Gateway to the East’.

ITC ventured into the hotels’ business nearly thirty years ago with the launch of ‘Chola Sheraton’ on the Company’s own property in Chennai. The Company soon followed this up with the opening of the ‘Mughal Sheraton’ in Agra and the ‘Maurya Sheraton’ (now rechristened and re-positioned as ‘ITC Hotel Maurya Sheraton & Towers) in New Delhi. ITC Hotels is today managing 46 properties across the country. The unique and distinctive value of operating excellence and exemplary architecture that ITC’s hospitality business strives to offer has been widely acknowledged by celebrated international business travellers that ITC Hotels has had the privilege of playing host to.

The unique and elegant aesthetics of the architecture and design of ‘ITC Sonar Bangla’ bears splendid testimony to the widely lauded expertise of the internationally renowned architecture and design firm, ‘Kerry Hill & Associates’, who are famous for their conception and creation of select boutique hotels across the world. The Hotel also stands out for its thoughtful and brilliant landscaping, with a special focus on plants of eastern India. Special emphasis has been laid on rearing tropical plants and preserving the natural water bodies to nurture the native pristine green, in the true ‘ITC-Welcomgroup’ tradition of consistent endeavour to protect and enrich the environment. Special suites in the Hotel open out to specially designed gardens. In today’s environmentally conscious world, the ubiquitous and crystal-clear water bodies that gurgle, course through and circle the Hotel and create an island-like ambience, the lush green carpeted and canopied walkways and the feather-like smoothly manicured gardens will irresistibly attract and delight international business travellers. Even as you cruise into ‘ITC Sonar Bangla’, what strikes you first is a quiet and gentle waterfall under a huge canopy. As you step into the stately and majestic lobby, an impressively dense bamboo grove catches your eye and captivates your fancy. That poignant symbol of green earth accentuates the romance with water.

‘ITC Sonar Bangla’ is the first ‘ITC-Welcomgroup’ Hotel in Kolkata and in eastern India, and will serve as an important and strategically significant link to complete the ‘ITC-Welcomgroup’ chain in India. The Hotel will strive to fulfill the need for international quality accommodation in Kolkata. It will also cater to the international business and leisure travellers visiting the eastern part of our country, and the contiguous commercial and business centres in neighbouring countries.

The décor of the Hotel, the services that it provides and the facilities that it creates, compare with the best worldwide. At the same time, the design and the architecture strive to preserve and highlight the rich art and culture of eastern India.

As the ideal business resort for today’s health-conscious senior manager and global business traveller, the Hotel has a jogging track, a health club, tennis courts and a swimming pool with an exclusive pool-side health café.

The incredible range of exotic culinary fare, that the eight restaurants in ‘ITC Sonar Bangla’ will dish out for its invaluable customers, will bear out ITC’s worldwide reputation for premium ethnic cuisine. The choicest fare from ‘Dum Pukht’ exemplifying the specialised cooking of the Nawabs of Oudh, ‘Peshawari’ celebrating the cuisine of the erstwhile North-West frontier provinces, ‘Dublin’, ‘Westview’, ‘Pan Asia’ and the ‘Eden Pavilion’ will jostle with each other to beckon the valued guest and the connoisseur from a shared home.

The architecture of the Hotel brings out ITC’s signature concept of ‘ A Hotel within a hotel’. Each accommodation block, be it the ‘Towers’ or the ‘Executive Club’, has its own independent lounge. Each block is separated by a massive water body brought to life with lilies and trees creating an aura of mystical romance. The exclusive pavilions promise peace and tranquility to those seeking solitude.

The ITC One Block, the heart of the Hotel which will strive to reach out to the crème de la crème of globe-trotting business managers, international celebrities and world leaders, is appropriately positioned at the centre of two towers. Each room in ITC One gives you the feel of an independent garden overlooking the water body. Loftily ensconced in ITC One, you can savour the spirit of freedom with natural light gently caressing you at the very special shower cubicles.