Next time you're in Bombay and that tropical heat is getting to you, why not go skiing?

Strange but true, this is what a Dubai-based company plans to offer in India's commercial capital before the end of this year as part of a £35 million investment in four indoor winter sports centres across the country.

"We hope to make it the biggest project of our enterprise in Asia," Mohammed Otaiba, chairman of the Mohammed Al Otaiba Group, told a news conference on Friday.

He said the group had been successful in Dubai, Egypt and Australia, and had chosen India for its next centres, offering skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports.

Of the $50 million the company plans to invest in India, about $20 million has been earmarked for the 9,000-sq-metre project in Bombay. "We are working at opening the Bombay's snow centre for the Christmas festival and the rest of the snow centres in the country by 2002," Otaiba said.

Artificial clouds and special effect lighting will create an ambience of daylight or the setting sun over a covering of snow that will be kept at a temperature of minus 7 degrees Celsius. An ice city called Frozen World, mainly for children, will have an Olympic-size ice rink and snow sculptures of the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. The project will include retail outlets, souvenir stores and -- for apres ski -- coffee shops.

"Just like the Alps in Switzerland", Otaiba enthused. Or not.

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[Story from Reuters]