Hotels ‘drywall' to speed up projects

Opening The Leela Palace Kempinski at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, in time before the 2010 Commonwealth Games in October is a big challenge for C P Krishnan Nair.

Though the hotel structure looks far from seeing an autumn 2010 launch, the chairman of Hotel Leelaventure Ltd is going all out for it - even if it means delaying his luxury hotel project in Chennai by almost a year.

Nair is banking on the ‘drywall construction’ (DWC) technology to speed up the development.

“Worldwide, all the top-of-the-line luxury hotels use it,” said Vivek Nair, vice-chairman and managing director, Hotel Leelaventure.
He is convinced that using DWC will ensure the New Delhi hotel opens its gates in July 2010.

“With civil works done and interior embellishment well on its way towards completion, we are confident of welcoming guests by the end of July this year,” Nair said.

The Leela Group seems to have drawn inspiration from the UK-based largest budget hotel company Whitbread Plc for using DWC technology.

According to Aly Shariff, managing director of Whitbread’s Indian subsidiary christened Premier Inn India Pvt Ltd, their Bangalore hotel is the first such project in India to use full drywall construction concept.

“The hotel was completed in a record time of 9 months,” he said.
Hemant Khurana, vice president - sales and marketing for Saint-Gobain Gyproc India Ltd, said, “Drywall is a different type of construction that uses plasterboards and framing systems to create the desired interiors. A combination of different types of plasterboards is used taking into account factors such as fire resistance, acoustics, height of the wall, etc, to do a drywall construction.”

In India, Saint-Gobain Gyproc and Lafarge Boral Gypsum India Pvt Ltd (LaGyp) are among the largest suppliers and service providers of an end-to-end DWC technology. In terms of usage, the DWC technology is largely used for commercial developments, office space, education institutions, hospitals etc in India.

“DWC reduces the overall construction time by at least a year. In the hospitality sector particularly, the hotelier is able to book revenues for that advanced launch period thereby reducing his breakeven time and increasing the profitability in the long run,” said Sanjeev Kumar Jain, projects director - India, Premier Inn India.

Speed of construction certainly is the primary advantage of using the DWC technology for most of the hoteliers. It is 3-4 times faster than the masonry style though not very competitive in terms of cost vis-à-vis the traditional brick and mortar approach. “The cost per square foot for a DWC tends to be 20-25% higher,” Khurana said.

Vikas Oberoi, managing director, Oberoi Realty Ltd (currently raising around Rs 1,500 crore through a public issue), however, has a contradictory view on the costing per square feet using the DWC technology.

“Our experience with this technology has been very cost-effective as compared the regular brick wall construction. The cost of construction using DWC for us has been Rs 105/sq ft as compared to Rs 140/sq ft for a brick wall,” Oberoi said.

Oberoi Realty’s The Westin Mumbai Garden City is the second hotel project in India to use the DWC technology.

Among a few others following suit include Marriott International’s Hyderabad hotel under the Courtyard by Marriott brand and InterContinental Hotel Group’s The Crowne Plaza hotel in Kochi.