Taj hotel heritage wing to open doors soon

The burning dome of The Taj Mahal Palace was among the most distressing, yet iconic, images of the armed attack on Mumbai, last November.

But, the heritage structure destroyed byfire, is to open mid-January, and bookings for about 50% of its rooms will start early January, says Karambir Singh Kang, Taj's Vice-President (Mumbai Hotels). Taj Mahal's Wasabi, Golden Dragon and Harbour Bar restaurants will open later this month, he adds.

Kang had lost his wife and two children during the attack on the hotel.Staff, guests and security personnel were among the casualties during the over 60-hour hostage situation at The Taj Mahal.

As the hotel now works to regain total normalcy in its operations by March, it has taken this time to not just "rigorously" train its staff across the country to deal with eventualities, but also implement safety measures, including extensive background checks.

The hotel will emerge "bigger, better and more efficient", says Kang. The Taj had opened its tower wing within three weeks of the attack. And guests such as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the former US President, George Bush, and Pepsi's global chief, Indra Nooyi, have already given the hotel their vote of confidence, says Kang. Pepsi held its second board meet outside the US, and the only one in India, at The Taj, he adds.

Hotel occupancy has been about 80% for the last two months. Future bookings look promising too, he says, with conferences, even 25 weddings in the next two months!

Total repair and renovation costs were estimated to be less than the hotel's Rs 1,000-crore insurance cover. Up to the last quarter, it had received Rs 130 crore.

Second nature

Recalling the staff's dedication, he says, "No one abandoned his post, they risked their lives to save others." Learning from the horrific incident, the hotel has put in place a system that rolls automatically - "who will inform whom, what they will do, if they are in a certain area what they should do", he elaborates.

"We have trained each and every one of our staff in the last (one) year. Each staff member has gone through extensive training on security and safety," says Mr Kang. The training is so comprehensive, that it becomes "second nature" to them, he adds.

The security drills involve simulating a situation with all scenarios, including an armed attack, he says, adding that the training was across all properties of the hotel chain.

Background Checks

Regarding intensified background checks on employees, Kang says, "It's a more rigorous process. We are screening whoever we hire and the process is very rigorous." Again, a practice implemented across its properties. "Lot of man-hours have gone in training. All this requires time and money and we have spent that," he adds.

Taken from Business Line