Designed and built by SM Group, Vivanta Shillong has a local touch all over

The entrance has Sohra stone, a beautiful mural of Meghalaya pine in the lobby and the hills and clouds of Meghalaya have an echo all over the hotel.

Welcome to Vivanta Shillong which is all set to open its doors to its guests this month.

And guess which company actually designed and built the Vivanta Shillong which is going to open its doors to its guests this month.

Not from anywhere else, but it is a company from Northeast- SM Group which did it all.

"Our role has been to envision, design, finance, and build the property. We appointed all the consultants, suppliers, and contractors. We selected the operator and negotiated the hotel management agreement with Indian Hotels Company Limited(IHCL). Now we shall hand over the property to them for its end-to-end management. IHCL shall, however, remain accountable to us as the operator of the property" Vikas Agarwal MD and CEO of SM Infra- the realty & construction arm of SM Group told BusinessNortheast.

"We were in the picture almost a decade ago into the project. After starting site work, there were regulatory hurdles that took a couple of years to sort out. After that, we resumed work but were hit on multiple fronts like the ILP protest, CAA agitation, and finally COVID-19. Having finally overcome all those challenges, we are now opening the doors of the hotel" he said.

The total investment into the 101-room hotel is Rs. 100 crores.

IHCL has a portfolio of 242 hotels including 62 under development globally across 4 continents, 11 countries and in over 100 locations. The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) is India’s largest hospitality company by market capitalization.

"Known as Crowborough for decades, we wanted to gift to the people of Meghalaya a modern hospitality icon that has state-of-the-art safety, technology, and convenience attributes. At the same time, it should be a top luxury property that would put Shillong on the ‘must visit’ list of global travellers" he said.

He said the vision of SM Group has been to develop quality hospitality infrastructure in North East.

"Like Guwahati, even Shillong had a pressing need for a top-quality hotel which we chose to service," he said. The company has invested in Novotel Guwahati too.

There is plenty of local touches and feel in the hotel. "The designers of the hotel from Malaysia have done a terrific job. The entrance porte-cochère has Sohra stone. After that, there is a beautiful mural in Meghalaya Pine in the lobby. In multiple designs, artifacts, carpets, and lights throughout, the clouds and hills of Meghalaya are represented. Even the artwork in the room is inspired by the tattoos of tribal women of North East India" he said.

He said the company is optimistic about the tourism potential of the Northeast and would like to do more projects. "We are definitely very confident about the tourism potential of North East and would like to develop more properties; especially in the leisure sector. We shall also partner with state governments to develop unique products that create an ecosystem to further downstream entrepreneurship in the tourism sector" he said.

He said the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma will do the key handover ceremony of the hotel himself on October 14.

Meghalaya is planning to focus on promoting the tourism sector to sustain the economic growth.

"He has been incredibly passionate about this property and the support we have received from the entire administration is praise-worthy. The hotel will open its doors to guests very soon after that. The date shall however be announced by the Indian Hotels Company Limited" he said.

"We are very confident that our guests will absolutely relish their time at Vivanta Meghalaya Shillong in terms of the design, food, and guest experience" he added.

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