The Rich Times

World’s vegetarian capital, Gujarat (India) is all ready for the inauguration of a 5-star pure vegetarian hotel in Surat (city). A few years ago when Pizza Hut did a market survey in Ahmedabad (largest city in Gujarat) before it opened its first outlet in Gujarat, it was surprised by the overwhelming response for a vegetarian outlet. Aided by this mandate, it went on to open its first vegetarian pizza outlet in the world.

The state is called the world’s vegetarian capital because Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M.K.Gandhi), who was among the first strong votaries for vegetarianism belonged to this state. Also, majority of the population of the area are staunch vegetarians. Thus, struck the idea of the vegetarian hotel, which could be the first such hotel in the world. “Good hotels who serve only vegetarian food do good business in pilgrim places although they may not be of 5-star category. I am a vegetarian who can’t stand non-veg. food. Yet, I want to build a 5-star hotel,” says Narendra Somani, CMD of Bhagwati Group, which will open the Surat 5-star hotel in March 2010.
Somani, 43, a college drop-out, started business in 1988 with ‘Bhagwati Chat’, an outlet which operated out of a small shop. Today, he runs a Rs 200-crore ($42,620,037) business, which includes a string of hotels and restaurants, coming on the back of a strong catering service which takes even international orders. “We have taken catering orders for Macau and Bangkok on the condition that we would serve only vegetarian food. That is one thing which we will never deviate from,” said Somani. Gujarat is also the only ‘dry’ state in the country where boozing is strictly prohibited.
Source