The Hindu Business Line : Taj Tower, Trident re-opened

Dedicated to terror victims: The Taj Mahal Palace, which witnessed terrorist attacks on November 26, reopened its Tower wing on Sunday. It will take awhile to restore the more heavily damaged Heritage wing. - Shashi Ashiwal

Taking no chances: Security personnel check a vehicle outside the Trident hotel at the Oberoi complex as it reopened on Sunday. The Oberoi section is expected to be ready in a few months - Shashi Ashiwal

Shubhra Tandon

Mumbai, Dec. 21 The glittering lights were up and guests in all their finery were back, as the Taj and the Trident officially threw open their doors to the public on Sunday, in a brave effort to put behind them, the 60-hour terror-siege that happened three weeks ago.

The tale of the two five-star hotels trapped in the clutch of gun-men, along with those of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Cama Hospital and the Nariman house – had all of Mumbai and indeed the country shocked.

“This is the beginning of a new era,” said Mr Ratan Tata to a battery of the world’s media assembled in front of the Tower wing of the Taj Mahal Palace before it was officially thrown open albeit under the shadow of tight security.

Flanked by the members of the Tata group management, including Indian Hotel Company’s Vice-Chairman, Mr Krishna Kumar, Mr Tata said that he was not the one to “look back”, and he felt “considerable pride” as the hotel took its steps towards normalcy. The reopening of the Tower wing, he said, was dedicated to the people who lost their lives and it sent out a message that “we cannot be knocked down”.

No recrimination

Echoing similar sentiments, the top-management of the Oberoi Group had said earlier, that this was not the time for recrimination. And on Sunday morning, the Oberoi Group Chairman, Mr P.R.S. ‘Biki’ Oberoi watched solemnly as priests conducted an all-faith prayer meeting at the Trident lobby, hours before it opened to the public.

In fact, both hotel majors were optimistic that the coming months would see an increase in their occupancy rates.

Security, hospitality

But as the two hotel majors look to redefine hospitality, they will now have to do business under the watchful eyes of armed gun-men and plain-clothes, less-obtrusive security-men.

But that did not seem to stop the glitterati who thronged the Taj - including corporate honchos such as the Tata group’s Mr J.J. Irani and Mr Ravi Kant, Piramal Healthcare’s Mr Ajay Piramal and Dr Swati Piramal, State Bank of India’s Mr O.P. Bhatt, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Mr Jagdish Kapoor, the State Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister and writer Shoba De and actor Rahul Bose. Taj’s tea-shop, Shamiana, was fully booked.

The entire Tower wing opened with 268 rooms, five restaurants and other places except for the 12th floor which was extensively used as a base by the elite commandos during the siege. The Oberoi Hotel, that took the brunt of the gun-men’s attack, will need at least 6-7 months for reopening, its management said.

Not getting drawn into a discussion on the absence of “crisis infrastructure”, Mr Tata responded to a query on security, saying that the measures taken for security were better kept confidential.

(With inputs from Jyothi Datta and Tania Kishore)

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