IHG is bringing its (...) Holiday Inn brand back to Chennai, India's third largest city and where India's first Holiday Inn hotel was established 35 years ago, in 1973.

Holiday Inn Estancia Chennai, a brand new 200-room, 75-suite hotel, will be developed by leading India-based construction and engineering company L&T Arun Excello Commercial Projects Ltd and managed by IHG.

The hotel will be part of the 82-acre Estancia Integrated Township, a mixed use development with a technology park earmarked as a special economic zone. Scheduled to open in 2011, the hotel is developed at an investment of US$35 million.

The Estancia Integrated Township is being jointly developed by L&T Urban Infrastructure Ltd and the Arun Excello Group of Companies. Features include a residential zone with 1,900 apartments, a 3,000,000 square feet technology park, a retail mall with multiplex and a school.

The entire project is designed by RMJM, a leading US architectural firm. The township is located 35 kilometres south of Chennai's city centre, along the National Highway 45 with easy access to the international airport and suburban railway network.

Leisure travellers will also be able to enjoy Holiday Inn Estancia Chennai's proximity to Mahabalipuram, a UNESCO-listed 7th century port city famous for its ancient temples and sculptures.

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Holiday Inn Estancia Chennai will add to IHG's pipeline of 14 other Holiday Inn hotels in various stages of development across the country. Accounting for close to 4,000 rooms, these new Holiday Inn hotels are scheduled to open over the next three years in 12 cities nationwide.