PROFILE - 1 ::

MURALI IS WORKING TO GET THE HOTEL DECLARED AS ‘HERITAGE PROPERTY’

BY P S SUNDAR

Whenever I interact with R Muralidharan, General Manager, The Gateway Hotel, Coonoor, I never miss the passion embedded in him to integrate the hotel with the society living in the Nilgiris district.    This is a vital factor that has resulted in the residents, more so those in Coonoor and its circumference, holding with pride that a Taj brand, The Gateway, is in their area.   I am forced to draw an elegant parallel to this in Mumbai where the residents hold Taj Mahal Hotel as an icon of the metropolitan city.

Murali has been highly responsive to the call of the neighbours not to cause air pollution through high decibel music during celebrations or otherwise create traffic jam!  

There may be an underlying reason for Murali’s proactive role in this – he hails from the Nilgiris.  And, equally significant, he began his career in the Nilgiris as Front Office Assistant with Taj Savoy Hotel Ooty in 1987 and was Front Office Manager (and Account Manager) at Taj Garden Retreat (now, Gateway) in Coonoor from 1992 to 2003.  And, he had useful exposure at Taj Garden Retreat Madurai and Thekkadi (where he was unit in-charge) and Taj View Agra before returning to Taj Garden Retreat in Coonoor as Operations Manager in 2008.  He became unit in-charge here in 2012.   Two significant changes happened during this tenure – in 2009, Taj Garden Retreat became The Gateway Hotel and in 2015, Murali became General Manager.

He heads a team of about 70 including eight departmental heads in Gateway Coonoor that has 32 rooms including executive suites, GAD restaurant, bar, banquet hall, wellness and recreation centres.  And in the GAD, in line with the corporate policy of the Taj group, ‘Regional food’ is served – Badaga dishes prepared home-style by housewives of Badaga, the predominant community of the Nilgiris. 

Among the mentionable works he had carried out was renovation of bathrooms in this 156-year-old property.   “In most rooms, we replaced bath-tub with shower thereby saving water usage.  Upgradation followed automatically”, he told me.

His another accent was on improving the water supply source. “Considering the acute water scarcity in Coonoor, we have dug wells in the hotel premises as also in our land at Bundhumi.  The water has been certified to be potable and we are now self-sufficient.  We are currently working on harvesting rain water all over the campus”, he noted.

Environmental care has always been in the forefront. “Besides observing environment day annually and also planting trees regularly, we have embarked on recycling of used water through aerobic-cum-microbial treatment plants and the water is used in gardens”, he disclosed.

The gardens themselves have been improved.  “We grow vegetables and herbs in our garden organically which we use in the 

hotel kitchen. We have created wire cover to protect the vegetables from monkeys.  Of late, we have planted 60 lime trees”, he said.

Among the innovation creditable to Murali is his ingenuity in planting Kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) in the garden.  Kurinji is a wild flower with varying blooming cycles and is a favourite for tourists.  However, tourists are required to travel long distances to see Kurinji during their blooming season.   It has mostly been unsuccessful to plant Kurinji in garden but, Murali’s attempt proved successful in taking Kurinji to the doorsteps of the guests. My article on this has won many accolades.

The complex housing the wellness centre itself has undergone welcome changes.  It is surrounded by vegetable and herbs gardens.  There is a well-equipped gymnasium.   There are separate facilities for Ayurvedic massage for men and women.  There is a reading room besides a recreation outfit.  “Guests are happy with this”, Murali told me.

“Two major happenings for the welfare of staff are upgradation of their quarters with added security and development of second-line management through promotion.  It is satisfying to note that a chef of our unit Ramachandran won title in the international contest, ‘Red Hot Chef’. All employees participate in all unit-centric activities including supplying food and materials to the needy as part of corporate social responsibility measures”, Murali noted.

“Among the encouraging results – we have ISO 22000 certification, Silver level in Earth Check certification, 8 to 10 per cent growth in business annually, 10 per cent growth in guest satisfaction and telling growth in employee satisfaction”, he revealed.

For 2015, my Agenda is to get this hotel classified as a ‘Heritage Property’ in recognition of its 156 year existence with traditional values”, Murali summed up.

On my part, I am waiting for my long-pending suggestion to have the Bougainville tree opposite to the hotel’s portico declared as the largest Bougainville among hospitality institutions in the Nilgiris.   Equally, I am waiting for the installation of the Board to announce the ‘Kurinji Garden Lawn’ with details of the blooms cited.