www.akdn.org The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) announced that the Kabul Serena Hotel was officially inaugurated this week by His Excellency President Karzai and His Highness the Aga Khan. The opening of the restored and expanded Kabul Serena Hotel, the former Kabul Hotel, is a milestone in Afghanistan’s post-conflict redevelopment.
Designed by award-winning architect Ramesh Khosla, the Kabul Serena Hotel will provide Kabul with much-needed accommodation for visitors to the city and will constitute an important post-war resource for Kabul residents. The hotel will be operated by Serena Hotels, the AKDN unit which builds and operates quality hotel facilities in areas of developing countries not well served by commercial hotel chains. It will employ 400 staff, 90% of whom are Afghan, and will work actively to support local suppliers of goods and services.
In 2002, the Government of Afghanistan asked the AKDN to help in restoring Kabul’s hotel capacity, which had been almost totally destroyed by the civil war, so that foreign and local investors, diplomats, government officials, donor agency representatives and tourists travelling to Kabul would have acceptable accommodation. It also will be an important facililty for meetings, conferences and social events. The Kabul Hotel has been a notable landmark and centre of activity in the city since it was built in 1945. But it had become virtually unusable, leaving Kabul with a serious shortage of accommodation for visitors.
In view of the historic significance of the hotel, many of the original architectural elements have been preserved in the restoration, and much of the original landscaping has been saved.
President Karzai called it “a great, great project” and said he hoped that it would be an inspiration for the future development and beautification of Kabul.
His Highness the Aga Khan added: “This project has purposefully set out to achieve world standards in the leisure industry. In its design and finishes, its amenities, the seismic-sensitive structure, and the training for staff, the hotel meets the highest international benchmarks. Rather than accept mediocrity, Afghanistan’s reconstruction is an opportunity to draw upon the world’s state-of-the-art technologies and standards, using them to jump-start the national economy and help bring it to a new and higher plane.”
Prince Amyn Aga Khan, brother of His Highness, and Chairman of Serena Tourism Promotion Services, said he hoped this first Serena Hotel in Afghanistan would become “a hub of life of this city, the venue of choice for meetings, for relaxation and for business” and that it would pave the way for the hotel group to build more in the region.
Eight development agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network are engaged in a range of economic, social and cultural programmes in support of Afghanistan’s redevelopment, in the fields of health, education, microfinance, rural development, infrastructure, and the restoration and preservation of important heritage sites. |
