Chennai, March 25 (IANS) A five-star hotel here will switch off its lights at its restaurants for an hour March 28 and serve candle light dinners in support of Earth Hour-2009, a global environmental awareness programme.

The Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers will switch off the lights from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m., joining one billion people across the globe participating in the Earth Hour-2009 campaign.

'This is part of our WelcomEnviron initiative to reduce, reuse and recycle materials for a green world,' the hotel's spokesperson Prathima Vasan told IANS.

At the last count, 84 countries, 8,617 schools, 20,887 businesses, 6,231 organisations, 2,712 cities and municipalities have decided to participate in the Earth Hour 2009.

Many Indian business houses like Hewlett Packard, Tata Indicom, PVR Cinemas, The Taj Group, Yes Bank and others have also decided to join the movement and film star Aamir Khan is leading the campaign.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008, it became more popular, with over 50 million people switching off their lights.