The Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS) projects seem to be taking off. The Board of Investment (BOI) has already approved projects adding up to Rs 46 billion and that’s not all. Other projects of up to Rs 62 billion are waiting for the BOI’s approval to move forward.

Foster & Partners, the famous British consultant cabinet, is working on the latest IRS project in Le Morne, in collaboration with Nexia Baker & Arenson as well as Sigma-Ova Arup & Partners. The project, estimated at Rs 11 billion, includes a five-star hotel, 200 flats, 120 villas as well as a golf course. A delegation of the British cabinet is expected in Mauritius in October and, if the authorities give the green light, work should start as from January next year and the whole project should be ready in mid-2009.

With this project alone, 1,500 new jobs are expected to be created. And this is far from being the sole IRS project on the island. Work has been going on on two others for quite a long time and the first villas should be ready soon.

The Tamarina Golf Estate of Medine is expected to deliver its first villas as from September. “Among the 119 villas included in the project, 100 have already been sold. 25 of them will be delivered between September and December this year,” guarantees Medine chief executive, Dany Giraud. And the golf course should be ready in October; a month later, the group intends to organise a golf championship so as to inaugurate the new golf course.

As for Ciel’s Anahita in Beau-Champ, the situation is said to be almost the same. Even though the construction of the flats will start this month only, all of them are said to have been sold. As far as the 30 villas bearing the trademark of the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts are concerned, work will start in September. A delegation of Ciel Properties will go on mission abroad to market their project in the coming weeks.

The Societe Morne Brabant is still at the discussion level but the director, Bertrand Giraud, is confident that it will submit its report for the Environmental Impact Assessment at the end of the month. The process might be a bit longer, as the company will have to make sure its project does not jeopardise the enrolment of Le Morne on the world heritage list of Unesco. But so far SMB has always accepted the changes necessary to protect the site and they have always managed to reach a consensus.