The Taj Group has proposed to rebuild Searock Hotel at Bandra Bandstand and make it two-and-a-half times taller.

The proposal comes months after the group bought a major stake in the landmark hotel, which was ravaged in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. It has been placed before the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee; a portion of the six-acre seafront plot lies within 100 m of the Bandra Fort, a Grade-I heritage site.

The Taj Group, which also owns the 480 room Taj Lands End on the plot opposite Searock, plans to mow down the 55-metre hotel and build one 140 m, 40 storeys tall.

In February, the Delhi-based Claridges Group of Hotels, then owner of the 440-room Searock, had sought the heritage committee’s nod for building a 103-metre-high structure. The panel had sought the opinion of the state government’s Archeology & Museums Department, which eventually gave the go-ahead on the ground that only a part of the open space of the hotel complex comes within 100 metres of the fort; the existing structure lies outside this radius.

“We had drawn up plans for a hotel that would give tough competition to Taj Lands End. Now that both hotels are owned by the same group, the plans are being revised,” said Suresh Nanda, chairman of the Claridges Group of Hotels, which retains a 15 per cent stake in Searock.

The Taj Group, which invested Rs 680 crore for its 85 per cent stake, is putting in another Rs 500 crore for reconstruction. Architect Hafeez Contractor has redrawn the plans. The proposal to go higher cites the government decision to sanction a higher floor space index (FSI) for five-star hotels.

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