MUMBAI: The Sahara India Group, which runs Sahara TV, is about to make its presence felt in Mumbai and how. It has just bought over one of the major landmarks in the city, the massive Centaur Airport Hotel from the Delhi-based Batra Hospitality for Rs 1150 million.

That's just the encore for what will be unveiled in the next few months in the next few months. And that is the awesome (in scale) Sahara Lake City project - in Amby Valley at the outskirts of Mumbai.

Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd will soon unveil its hill city - in which the company has already invested around Rs 28 billion. The total expenditure planned to develop the city is around Rs 160 billion, the Economic Times has reported.

The report quotes Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd deputy director OP Dixit as saying the company will be embarking on a mass marketing campaign from January 2003.

Meanwhile, the Centaur deal, which was announced on Thursday, includes the Centaur Airport Hotel in Mumbai, six flats in Andheri east and dealership of a petrol pump across the hotel, according to the Financial Express.

Centaur hotel properties were formerly owned by Air-India under the banner of Hotel Corporation of India (HCI). The report further says that Sahara is considering buying at least two more hotel properties in Mumbai, one of which is the Searock hotel in the upscale Bandra suburb.

The report further states that Sahara plans to shift its corporate office to Centaur Airport Hotel and use the hotel for its airline crew to save costs. It has plans to expand its fleet and offer packages which include discounts and free stay at the Centaur Airport Hotel.