A Scottish businessman who is heading a luxury resort development in Mauritius has decided to include a boarding school.

The elite school would be unique to the Indian Ocean island.

It would form part of the Azuri project, a development of 278 homes and a five-star 101-bedroom hotel, being run by the Indian Ocean Real Estate Company, whose chief executive is Murray Adair.

The school will be a partner to prestigious Wellington College, Berkshire, and hope to attract pupils from across the world as well as local children.

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Mr Adair, who studied architecture at Strathclyde University, told the Herald newspaper: "The school will be on a 40-acre site. We plan to have 350 boarding places and the rest will go to local kids. We hope people who live in the villages will send kids there. We expect a lot of children from Africa and India. For example, the number of kids in Nigeria who could afford the fees is 250,000 and Africa is developing very fast."

Construction work started in May and three quarters of the homes have already been snapped up.

Properties in the development cost between £320,000 and £530,000.

Non-nationals can only become resident on Mauritius, which offers a range of tax benefits including a flat 15% rate of income tax, by becoming property owners through an Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS).

Mr Adair said: "We wanted to create a lifestyle village which will be busy 12 months a year with local people living there and those encouraged to come and live by the IRS."

(NE)