A hotel amidst Ulsoor Lake

Tourism Dept Plans City’s First Floating Hotel
Times of India


Bored of eating and dancing on flat earth? Soon you will be able to do it ... floating on gentle waves, with the stars and the sky for company! For music, there’ll be the rustling leaves and crickets.

The tourism department, in its most ambitious project yet, is proposing to start Bangalore’s first ever floating restaurant on Ulsoor Lake. Though no budget or timeframe has been decided, the department is now scouting around for barges that can suit this purpose.

“There is very little for tourists to do at night in Bangalore. To fill this vacuum, we are trying to come up with things that will interest them. A floating restaurant is the first thing we propose to do,’’ tourism commissioner Mahendra Jain told The Times of India. The department plans to kick off with one restaurant on Ulsoor Lake and increase the number at the same destination, as well as introduce them on other lakes, depending on the response.

Initially, the department plans to serve only dinners, with lunches thrown in during weekends. It is planning to set up the restaurant with a seating capacity of 100-150 and admission will be through booking. It will be high-end, though the cuisine has still not been decided. In addition to food, the restaurant will have entertainment and a dance floor. More activities will be added on from time to time, or to coincide with special occasions likes festivals or events. The department will have to choose from two modes of ferrying customers: either pick them up at the bank at a designated time and then float around, or have small boats ferry the customers to the restaurant gently cruising in the middle.

To begin with, the department will run the restaurant through KSTDC, and is sensitive to all related issues. “We will work with all departments concerned to make the project as viable as possible. We are prepared to adhere to all norms,’’ Jain said.

There are enough models for Bangalore to choose from. Floating restaurants are a huge tourist hit all over the world. On the Thames in London and on the Siene in Paris, scores of floating restaurants cruise up and down the rivers serving customers in all price ranges. Closer home, Mumbai has Suzy Wong’s, a floating bar while a fullfledged four-storeyed hotel and restaurant, complete with 73 rooms and three suites - Manor Floatel - sails on the Hooghly in Kolkata. There are a few floating restaurants on many of Kerala’s backwaters.