East India Hotels chairman P R S Oberoi on Saturday said that the group hoped to reopen its Trident hotel at Mumbai's Nariman Point earlier than the adjacent Oberoi hotel, though an assessment of the damage caused by the terrorist attacks was yet to be completed.
"From preliminary assessment, the damage at the Oberoi appears to be much more than at the Trident. It is difficult to tell when we can reopen each of these hotels. Effort will be to open both the hotels as soon as possible," he told a press conference a day after security forces took control of the properties after a 48-hour battle with the two terrorists holed up there. He said that the sanitisation process at the Oberoi hotel was still underway.
Though Oberoi did not provide any loss estimates, he said the hotels were insured against terror attacks as well as loss of profit. "The company will not suffer financially due to the attack," he said. There has been no damage to the structures of the two hotels.
The two hotels account for about 45 per cent of the group's turnover. At the end of 2007-08, EIH's revenues were estimated at Rs 1,158 crore )Rs 11.58 billion), while EIH Associated Hotels reported revenues of Rs 61 crore (Rs 610 million).
Oberoi himself had a narrow escape as he left the hotel for the Ernst & Young award function in the western Mumbai suburb of Bandra, about half-an-hour before the two terrorists entered the hotel through the front door. The two armed terrorists, who entered Trident around 9.30 pm, first killed three-four people in the lobby before moving to Oberoi, which is interconnected to Trident, and taking people hostage there.
Of the 32 people killed at the two hotels, four were resident guests, including three foreigners, Oberoi said. Eighteen of the dead were people who had come for dinner at the hotels' restaurants, while 10 staff members were also killed in the terror attack. Security forces managed to evacuate 316 people from Trident, while 135 people were evacuated from Oberoi.
One of the terrorists was found dead in a room, while the other millitant's body was found in the lobby.
Oberoi, however, ruled out the involvement of hotel staff in the terror attacks and said that there were no advance booking by anyone who could have been a part of the plot.
"The hotel association will take up the issue of security with the central government and various state governments," Oberoi said, adding that providing arms to the hotel's security staff required government permission.
