,Bhairahawa, Mar. 4: Landmark, a four-star hotel, has come into operation in Bhairahawa. Asha Gurung, a young businessman of Bhairahawa, has started the hotel in Siddharthanagar Municipality-3 with an investment of Rs. 500 million in an area of 10 kathas of land. 

The hotel, whose construction was completed in five years, has been managed and brought into operation by the Samrat Group. Samrat Group, which started its hospitality business from Pokhara in 1991, is also operating star hotels in Kathmandu and Chitwan.

Chief Executive Officer CN Pandey said that with 30 years of experience in the hospitality sector, they have taken over the hotel’s management of Bhairahawa targeting tourists from India and the third countries who come to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.

Stating that the hotel in Bhairahawa has started service with 50 rooms, including deluxe, super deluxe, family and junior suites, he said that the hotel also has a courtyard lounge, swimming pool and rooftop bar with a capacity to hold 100 people.

 The building is designed in such a way that most of the rooms and toilets receive sunlight. He said that a party and seminar hall with a capacity of 600 and 200 people respectively will be built on an area of 10,000 square feet shortly.

According to Pandey, the halls will be designed to attract Indian citizens to organise weddings and banquets. He said, “The interior design is done by a Hong Kong-based engineer so that Indian customers can spend millions of rupees and decorate as they want.”

He said that they have a plan to attract domestic tourists by making the hall available to Nepalis at a 50 per cent cheaper rate than to Indians. He said that the Indian government has recently passed a law that allows an Indian to travel with USD 5,000, so it was easy to make the hotel a wedding destination.

Earlier, due to the provision of carrying only 25,000 Indian Rupees, there was relatively little business in the hotel and tourism sector of Nepal. Owner Asha Gurung said that 100 people got direct employment in the hotel.