ITC Ltd opened its Fortune Murali property at Vijaywada with with an eye of the conference market.

A part of the Fortune Park Hotels chain, it opened on February 8 as the chain's sixteenth operating property.

Fortune Park Hotels is a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Limited and offers accommodation for the mid-price segment of business travelers.

Built almost 17 years ago by a Dubai based company, Fortune Murali Park is owned by Kandhari Hotels, whose managing director, M Murali Krishna, undertook to totally renovate the earlier hotel.

The new look includes the re-cladding of the exterior walls and full refurbishment of the interiors. Built on a 1-acre plot, Fortune Murali Park is located on MG Road with 70 rooms including 44 standard and 18 club rooms, six junior suites, an executive suite and a presidential suite. It has two restaurants, a bar and lounge.

The hotel aims to be a major conference venue and features five banquet halls and seminar rooms to accommodate upto 1000 guests as also a board room for presentations.

Mandeep S Lamba, president of Fortune Park, said the Fortune Murali Park at Vijaywada gave the chain a substantial presence in the south and in Andhra Pradesh.

Other properties in the south included Fortune Katriya at Hyderabad, Fortune Kences at Tirupati, the South Park at Tiruvananthapuram and Fortune Calicut at Kozikode.

The chain aimed to have 50 properties by 2010 including another hotel in Cochin.