An Indian tycoon developing an $8 billion resort with the help of Australian expertise is willing to look at investment in the 'beautiful' Gold Coast.

Subrata Roy, head of the Lucknow-based Sahara India Pariwar group, is using Burchill VDM of Bundall in a planning and engineering role at his Amby Valley Sahara Lake City, in the hills near Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

He was on the Gold Coast yesterday to get an update on Burchill's Sahara Lake City work and to see a Burchill-made animated three-dimensional film on the resort.

Mr Roy said he intended Sahara Lake to become one of the top five tourist destinations in the world.

He said it was likely to be the first of a number of projects undertaken with Burchill VDM.

"We are open to investing on the Gold Coast", he said.

"It is a beautiful place on a beautiful continent.  I think Burchill VDM will suggest something (on the Gold Coast)."

"If we come here, we will go for something good, something big."

Mr Roy's interest in the Coast comes after news that a group of Indian businessmen is poised to invest $40 million in a new theme park.

The theme park is earmarked for development on land near the Griffith University campus at Southport.

It also comes as increasing numbers of wealthy Indians are choosing the Gold Coast as a holiday destination.

Mr Roy heads a group which has net assets of more than $8 billion and has contacts in the highest levels of Indian politics.

His group also is the major sponsor of the Indian cricket team, shelling our around $35 million over the past three years.

Sahara is one of India's largest groups, with 600,000 employees and projects which range from the country's No. 2 airline to satellite television, budget home building, banking and information technology.

Its links with Burchill VDM came after the Bundall group, which cut its teeth on ambitious Gold Coast projects, established a reputation in various parts of Asia for broadacre planning and urban renewal.

The Sahara Lake City resort, which is under way on a 2000-hectare site, is being touted as India's first planned hill city and will include lakes, golf courses, sports academies, a health spa, and adventure sports such as ballooning and para-gliding.

Burchill VDM is guiding the destiny of the massive project, through masterplan development, micro planning of precincts and the design of infrastructure.

Mr Roy was yesterday loud in his praise of the Burchill work.

"They are good people.  They are very interesting people and they are doing their work very well.  We really do appreciate their involvement."  The Burchill director in charge of overseas projects, Mark Windsor, said the Sahara Lake City site posed challenges because of its gradient.

"You would rarely find developers in Australia tackling anything above a one-in-four grade, but at Sahara Lake City we have had to find ways to make it work without sacrificing the environmental attributes of the historic valley," he said.