Islamabad: Marriott set to reopen on Sunday

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The Marriott Hotel will reopen on Sunday, three months after it was blown up by a truck bomb that killed 60 people and wounded 260.

Peter Alex, the chief operating officer of the Hashoo group, said ‘new concepts of security and safety’ have been used in the extensive renovation work to ensure guests can check in without fear. “It will be the Fort Knox of Pakistan,” Alex told AFP, referring to the site where the United States stores most of its official gold reserves.

Alex said 60 rooms would be available from Sunday for the Marriott’s ‘soft reopening’, with the entire hotel due to be open by March. Alex showed AFP a new bombproof wall — which is 14 feet high and 15 feet thick — erected in front of the freshly repainted building.g.

The new blast wall has been designed to absorb the shock of even a massive explosion outside, like the one in September. Visitors will have to pass through a bombproof room within the wall in order to gain access to the hotel, which will feature sophisticated scanning equipment, Alex said. afp

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