The custody of the hotel, which suffered significant damages during the assault by terrorists, was handed over to the company management on December 2 and external agencies have been contracted to assess the damage, The Indian Hotels Company Ltd said in a statement.

"Our company has in place adequate insurance cover. We are working with reputed agencies to sanitise and repair the hotel to be in a position to re-open the Tower wing on a priority," the company said.

It added that according to preliminary inspections, "The Tower wing of the hotel has not suffered any significant damage, while the Heritage wing suffered from the impact of severe assault".
 
                                          Why Taj, Oberoi may not get full insurance
                                          We will not be defeated: Ratan Tata

"Specialist external agencies have been contracted by us to assess the damage and to quantify the costs and times lines for repair and restoration of the hotel," the company added.

While the repair and restoration assessment work at the Taj, Mumbai, had commenced, the company's other 78 hotels and two dozen odd palaces, private islands, resorts and spas across 12 countries in the world continued to operate normally, the company said.

According to the Indian Hotels, 10 of the group's employees died during the siege of the hotel.

"The terrorist attack on our hotel has resulted in the death of 10 employees and injured 11 others... In addition, the attack has resulted in casualties amongst the resident and non-resident guests, whose numbers are under confirmation with the authorities," the company added.