South City Group, a consortium of six Calcutta-based developers, is foraying into the hospitality sector with a luxury wellness resort focusing on ayurveda.

The venture is coming up on the Basanti highway, 16 kilometres off the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass on a 55-acre land. The project will also have luxury villas along with the wellness resort. The first phase will be launched later this year with the 30-key resort and 20 villas, Sushil Mohta, a director and one of the consortium partners of South City, informed.

“We will invest about Rs 100 crore in the hospitality segment. The residential villa section will be crucial to make it viable as there is hardly any payback for such a hospitality venture,” Mohta explained.

The villas will come up on plots ranging from 12 cottah to 2 bigha land and priced between Rs 3 crore and Rs 6 crore.There are about 100 villas planned for the second phase.

In the wellness venture, South City Group has tied up with the Carnoustie group which operates such a facility near Kochi in Kerala. South City’s wellness resort is spread over 40,000 square feet.

The South City Ayurveda and Wellness Retreat plans to offer diverse treatment and wellness packages of one to three weeks. Those who enrol for the package will stay in the resort. Rack rate for the rooms is likely to be Rs 10,000 a night.

“Wellness is a booming industry, especially after the pandemic. There are many such boutiques in Kerala and a few more have come up near the Himalayas. However, there is none in this part of the country, especially in Bengal. This centre can fill up the gap,” Mohta explained.

The developers are expecting half of the traffic to be generated from the city itself as many from this part of the country travel to the wellness centres in Kerala and Dehradun.