An iconic Mumbai five-star hotel severely damaged in the 2008 terror attacks fully reopened last night with hundreds of people thronging its newly renovated lobbies and restaurants.
The 107-year-old Taj Mahal hotel – an elegant, sea-facing structure – was one of the main targets of the three-day rampage across India’s financial capital by 10 young men armed with assault rifles and grenades. Its famous dome was singed by flames and its walls and windows were shattered and pocked with gunfire.
The 60-hour siege, which also targeted another luxury hotel, a Jewish centre, a popular restaurant and the city’s crowded main train station, left 166 people dead across the city, 31 of them at the Taj Hotel.
The damage to the hotel’s heritage wing took over 22 months to repair and cost nearly 1.75 billion rupees ($52 million). A newer wing of the hotel opened for business just three weeks after the attacks.
The heritage wing, which opened to coincide with India’s 64th Independence Day, has 285 rooms with prices that start at US$625 ($885) a night. “Nearly two years ago, our world was torn apart,” Raymond Bickson, the managing director of Indian Hotels, the company that runs the Taj Group of hotels, said last week. “We were not defeated. We resolved to be better than ever.”
Bickson said the hotel had revamped its security arrangements to ensure the safety of its guests and staff. India blames the attacks on the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and has called on Pakistan to crack down on terrorists thought to be operating from their soil.
Authorities captured the lone surviving gunman during the attack and earlier this year a special court sentenced him to death.
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