CHENNAI: Connoisseurs 2011, a seminar on Indo-French culinary art, focussing on bridging the various differences between India and France got underway at the SRM Institute of Hotel Management in Kattankulathur.
Gokula Indira, Minister of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu, inaugurated the seminar and the exhibition on French cuisine. She expressed her desire to put out more hotels in the tsunami-affected areas along the coastline of Tamil Nadu. She also said that big institutions should open up pocket-friendly hotels for students visiting India on study tours.
P Ravi, chairman of the SRM group, said that the group will be supporting all the tourism initiatives of the government and as a prelude, they are now initiating medical tourism projects, which will provide a financial boost to the tourism sector in the state. Ravi also announced that two more hotel are coming up in Chennai, apart from the one at Trichy.
Praising D Antony Ashok Kumar, the director and principal of SRM Institute of Hotel Management, Ravi recalled his services to the institution right from his days as a lecturer, from where he has now come to be the director, due to sheer hard work and dedication.
Earlier, Antony Ashok Kumar welcomed the gathering. Dr N Sethuraman, Registrar, A Jeyachandran, Director Taj group, and other official representatives of the institute were also present on the occasion.
SRM university is also planning to set up one more university at Sonepet, Haryana. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Ravi said that the SRM group has got the nod from the Haryana government to start a state private university and land has been allotted for the same. The university on the lines of the one at Kattankulathur will become operational within three years from now and is estimated to cost the group Rs 300 crore approximately.
The university is scouting for modern designs with state of the art infrastructure and is on the verge of finalising architects for the project. He also said some foreign companies have pitched for the project.
The new college is expected to have engineering, medical, para-medical and dental departments, which is expected to be well received by students of North India.