How the Taj rebuilt itself after the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11

It's been 10 years since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but memories of the horrible carnage that killed 180 people and injured over 300, remain fresh. In the years following the tragedy, the iconic Taj Mahal hotel has been able to resurrect not just its opulent interiors and exterior but also its spirit.

While most of the hotel reopened within a month of the tragic attack, the Palace wing of the 115-year old hotel, which was heavily damaged from inside due to the fire, bullets and water, reopened 21 months later. The total estimated loss for Taj amounted to Rs 400 crore.

The Taj hotel staff were praised for putting their lives in danger while saving the guests. The hotel lived up to its high levels of quality and making extra efforts to delight customers. In this case, this hospitality extended to saving several lives of guests.The staff gave customer service a whole new meaning when they went above and beyond the call of duty. The different styles of training, hiring and incentive systems went a long way .Taj has a value-driven recruitment system and trains employees to be customer ambassadors and not the hotel's ambassadors. In fact, this exemplary behaviour by employees  on the three days of the attacks  became a case study at Harvard.

The all-famous humanitarian philosophy of Jamshetji Tata came to the fore as the Taj went all out to help those affected in any way by the attack. The compensation for every employee who was killed ranged from Rs 36 lakh to Rs 85 lakh in addition to the full last salary till the employee's scheduled retirement. The senior management took charge of the education of children and  dependents anywhere in the world. They are also providing medical facilities to the dependants for the rest of their lives. They also organised a counsellor for life for each person. A psychiatric cell was established in alliance with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel all those who needed such help

The luxurious hotel's interiors were charred. For 60 hours this iconic monument was at the mercy of armed gunmen.The cost of the restoration of the hotel was upwards of 1.75 billion rupees. More than 21 months were spent assessing the damage and then restoring the hotel. Architects, designers and restoration experts from India and around the world were involved in the process.

Security

Needless to say the hotel has ramped up security in all its hotels. In the Taj Palace in Mumbai there are now 150 security cameras, up from just 15 at the time of the incident. It now has 50 security personnel five times more than what it had in 2008. The large windows overlooking the Mumbai bay are made of shatterproof glass.