Over the next few months, expect heavy traffic around the Do Talwar area. By May of this year, it will have the honour to be a neighbour with the country’s tallest building.
Ocean Towers, formerly known as Sofitel Towers, is 393 feet high and will house a shopping mall, food courts, corporate offices and a business club, said the project’s sponsors. The 28-floor skyscraper has bypassed the 381-feet tall MCB Tower on II Chundrigar road as the tallest building in the country.
A formal inauguration of the towers took place on Saturday by Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar.
The chief executive officer of Siddiqsons Group and Triple Tree Associates, Tariq Rafi, said that the skyscraper was completed at a cost of Rs7 billion. The building materials used in its construction conform to the standards set by the Karachi Building Control Authority, enabling it to withstand earthquake shocks.
The towers were initially supposed to house the Sofitel chain of hotels, but they withdrew because of the violence in Karachi. The managing partner of the project, Abdul Rehman Naqi, said that a popular supermarket chain in the city would be the first store in the towers and would open its doors to the public, hopefully by May 25. “The upper half of the building, which will house corporate offices, will be completed by June 20. But as we have limited office space, I am not really worried about the other mall-cum-office projects being constructed elsewhere in the city.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 21st, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
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hahhahahaha only 381 feet egyptians used to build taller pyramid than this :P
What about The Centaurus in Islamabad? Current story height of two towers is of 37 stories and main tower is still to be built!
Parking! Please do not forget the parking space! There are huge skyscrapers being built everywhere but only a small space is dedicated for parking cars and vehicles
Congrats to all Karachites, will they also have a Roof top public viewing section, like we used to have at Habib Bank.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centaurus what about centaurus?
Prophecy: Rid Karachi of violence and lawlessness and the skyline of Karachi will become like that of Bangkok. This only the beginning.
Ocean Towers is now the tallest in Pakistan but Under-construction Center Point will over-take it in few months. At KPT interchange Karachi is Coming 150m tall building. Karachi is again going tall and rising and will continue to rise Insha'ALLAH.
like danish mughal
There is a positive relationship between skyscrapers and recessions... whenever a skyscraper is built, that country goes into a recession... its a proven fact.
Tall buildings and a pretty skyline will remain white elephants unless we can sort out the security situation in Karachi. What good is a tall building if it is half empty?
Karachi is gonna RISE and TALL again. May this project open more job opportunities and contribute to the economic prosperity of Karachi and Pakistan.
sigh constructing tall buildings without modernising Fire and rescue equipment is like waiting for the disaster to strike :( plz plz plz do invest in Vehicle Mounted tower Ladders!!!
warna aag 71st storey pe lagi hoti hai, aur paani 25th pe daala ja raha hota hai