India’s largest theme park operator Wonderla Holidays has started work on a fourth park in Chennai to open in Q4 2018.

The RS3bn (US$45.9m, €41.4m, £29.4m) development, first touted in August last year, will cover 222,500sq m (2.4m sq ft) with 45 land and water rides for the signature park, which would be the largest in south India.

The state-of-the-art attraction will introduce a number of firsts for Indian theme parks, with a virtual reality safari experience and a reverse looping rollercoaster among the cutting-edge technologies to be used.

Arun K Chittilappilly, managing director of Wonderla Holidays is reportedly in discussions with waterpark suppliers WhiteWater West and Polin to provide a number of slides for the park. Beyond that Chittilappilly is eyeing Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to expand his company’s footprint in India over the course of the next 12 years.

“We have already started work and have signed an MoU with a Chennai-based, real estate agency which will acquire 55 acres on the Old Mahabalipuram Road for us,” said Chittilappilly, speaking to BusinessLine. “It took 18 months to build and launch the Hyderabad park and we are confident that we will be able to open the Chennai park in the same time frame.”