Taj doubles Colombo hotel capacity; spends $10 mln on revamp

Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces today said it has completed a USD 10-million expansion at its Sri Lankan property, the Gateway Hotel Airport Garden Colombo.
Operational for the past three decades, the Colombo hotel is jointly owned by Mukesh Advani and Prakash Advani, and the Hirdaramani family with 50 per cent stake each.
Since the inception, the hotel is managed and operated by the Taj Group, which also operates two other properties in Sri Lanka at Colombo and Bentota under the Taj and Vivanta brands respectively.
With this, Gateway Hotel has doubled its capacity to 200 rooms to meet the growing demand and has refurbished the lobby.

"The theme of the new block, consisting of 98 executive rooms and two suites, has been conceptualised to include a modern flavour of Sri Lanka and caters to all segments of MICE, leisure, corporate and transit travellers," the company said in a statement. It put in USD 10 million in the expansion project.
"Given the hotel's proximity to the airport and the steady growth of Sri Lankan tourism, we feel it is an opportune time to expand our inventory." Taj Group area director Sri Lanka Rohit Khosla said.