By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA  –
CONSTRUCTION of the US$15-million Park Royale Residency Hotel in Lusaka has reached an advanced stage and it is expected to be operationalin September 2016.
Neelkanth Group representatives Gopal Kedia said construction of the five-star hotel is on course and works are scheduled to be completed before the end of next year.
Mr Kedia said the hotel would have 80 rooms and a number of conference facilities.
“We have a hospitality industry background outside Zambia in places like Tanzania for example, and we have manufacturing activities here in Zambia like MM Integrated Steel Mills  and Neelkanth Lime situated on the Copperbelt,” he said.
“We started construction of this hotel in November 2014, the hotel project normally takes two years and the plan is to complete the works and start running the hotel by September 2016,” Mr Kedia said.
“We are still not decided whether we will run the hotel ourselves or give other persons to manage it.
We still have enough time to decide,” he said.
Mr Kedia said construction of the hotel had been given to the contractor and around 90 people have been employed so far.
On the Neelkanth Lime plant in Ndola, Mr Kedia said the project has been operational for the last three years and was able to produce between 600 and 700 tonnes per day.
Mr Kedia is also the general manager of MM Integrated Steel Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of galvanised iron and colour roofing sheets, tubes, including roto water tanks in Lusaka.