Software major Wipro may have cringed at the Rs 2.16-crore-per-acre price tag at Rajarhat, but little-known hoteliers are keen to shell out around four times that amount ? if not more ? for their share of space in New Town.

A consortium of realtors from Mumbai, raring to set up a three-star hotel in Rajarhat, has outbid others by quoting Rs 29.31 crore for 3.57 acres. That works out to Rs 8.21 crore per acre.

The response was equally frenzied against the tender that the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), owners of land in Rajarhat, floated, inviting expression of interest for a five-star hotel on a five-acre plot. The highest bid, according to sources, was Rs 25 crore.

?We are satisfied with the response. But while we are closing the formalities with the highest bidder for the three-star hotel, we have decided to go in for a fresh tender for the five-star hotel,? said R. K. Tripathy, managing director, Hidco.

While he refused to spell out the trigger behind the re-tender, sources said price was the prime factor. ?The interested players were paying over Rs 8 crore per acre for the three-star hotel, but it was just Rs 5 crore for the five-star hotel. A fresh tendering process has been initiated for better realisation,? said an official.

While the government agency awaits a fresh round of realty responses, the plot price has taken everyone linked to the real estate and the hospitality sectors by surprise.

The chief executive officer of a leading developer firm said: ?This is an unheard-of price for a plot of land in a place like Calcutta. I think it?s the outcome of competitive bidding.?

According to estimates, the going rate per acre for hoteliers will be around Rs 3 crore in Hyderabad, Rs 5 crore in Bangalore and Rs 6 to 7 crore in Gurgaon.

?There is no doubt that Rajarhat is extremely promising, but I?m not sure about the business viability of hotels with such high land acquisition costs,? observed a senior executive with one of the leading hotel chains in the country.

Though the tenders drew around 15 responses ? including expressions of interest for both the three-star and five-star hotels ? the leading players in the hospitality industry steered clear of the Rajarhat race.

The list of interested parties included names like AP Fashions, Inter Continental Group, Karlsons Group and Hotel Hindusthan International.

?It seems established players did not take part in the tender as the pricing did not fit their business model. Too much of capital is chasing too few properties in our country today and that?s why new players are entering this industry,? explained a city-based developer. ?Their business models and considerations are bound to be different,? he added.