Courtesy/News Source: hotelierindia.com

Lulu Group who was awarded the 13-acre land in Visakhapatnam for setting up an international convention centre and a luxury hotel project on the beach road by the previous TDP government, has now lost it owing to the revoke decision made by the current Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSRCP government. The decision to cancel the land allotment deal signed with Lulu Group was taken at the Cabinet meeting at Amravati.

Relieving the reason behind this revoke to be unethical allocation, Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkataramaiah while briefing the media said, “Lulu Group was handed the land at Vishakhpattanam in infringement of all central vigilance commission guidelines. In case of having only a single bidder and absence of global tenders, the TDP government, as per rules, should have cancelled the bidding, which of course, didn’t happen. We have, thus, decided to revoke the unethical allotment.”

Lulu Group in its statement last year had clearly stated that they aimed to make Visakhapattanam a global destination for meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) tourism. The land allotment bidding was transparent for the same. AP, according to Lulu Group, was big on investments from the hospitality industry because of which this Rs. 2200 crore project was taken on board. This project was expected to provide employment to more than 7000 local youth. With fine dining concept and food courts with 2,500 seating capacity, the project was to become home for 200 national and international brands, a hypermarket, and over 20 F&B outlets.

However, responding to the annulment, Lulu Group’s opinion on the same, Ananth Ram, Director – India, Lulu Group said, “We agree to the decision of the government to annul the land allotment deal for this project though we have incurred huge expenses towards initial project development costs. Owing to the recent events, we have decided not to invest in any new projects in Andhra Pradesh. However, all our investments and upcoming projects in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala will go ahead as per schedule.