Ranchi, June 26: The Jharkhand cabinet today allotted 4.5 acres of prime land at Doranda to the Taj group of hotels for setting up a property under its Gateway brand.

The government has decided to give away three sprawling bungalows owned by the state near the Mecon roundabout, which are now home to zonal inspector-general of police D.K. Pandey, additional principal chief conservator of forests A.K. Malhotra and building construction special secretary P.C. Mishra. India Hotels Limited, which owns the Taj group, has been asked to complete construction before next year?s National Games, slated for December 2007.

Cabinet secretary Aditya Swarup said the land would be given to the hotel group for 30 years with a condition to extend the lease of the same period twice. The maximum period of the renewable lease will be 90 years.

?The company will give a minimum guaranteed rental or percentage of turnover, whichever is greater, to the government. There will be no minimum rent in the first two years. It will be Rs 27 lakh for the third to the sixth years, Rs 35 lakh for the seventh to the 15th years and Rs 45 lakh for the 16th to 30th years. The first two years have been freed since the hotel will be set up then,? Swarup said.

Keen on opening a hotel in Ranchi, Taj was looking for a suitable plot of land since last year. A team of officials from India Hotels had visited different sites in the city and zeroed in on the zonal IG?s office as the best location. Since the plot had less land than required by the hotel, the government decided to also allot the forest department bungalows now housing Malhotra and Mishra. The total area of the three bungalows is five acres, but Taj will be given 4.5 acres. The rest may be kept for developing a green belt near the hotel.

The clause that the hotel has to be set up before the National Games 2007 has been incorporated to ensure there is quality accommodation available in the city for the extravaganza.

The Gateway hotels comprise properties ranging from first class hotels to modest lodges. Two such hotels, both four-star properties, are in Chiplun on the Mumbai-Goa highway and in Bangalore.

Government officials said the hotel, while it won?t match the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai (in picture) or Taj Bengal in Calcutta, would not be a budget property. It will have more than 100 rooms, a swimming pool, convention halls, restaurants and other facilities befitting quality hotels.

India Hotels had earlier said it would set up budget hotels in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad under the brand name indiOne, now called Ginger. ?Ginger has identified land in the Tisco area in Jamshedpur, but is yet to spot a suitable site in Ranchi,? said a senior government official.