Mumbai's iconic tower update

In a major climb down, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to relax pre-qualified conditions for developers who have evinced interest in construction of the ambitious tower at Wadala. According to the earlier decision, the lead partner needed to have 75% of the net worth and turnover. But the revised condition has brought down the limit to mere 26%. “The lead partner should hold majority equity of not less than 26% and the joint venture partners should have the net worth and turnover proportionate to the equity,” the revised condition says. Earlier, one of the eligibility criteria for the developers included that they should have track record of constructing a building of at least 400 meters height in the past five years. This condition has been relaxed to 300 meters, he said. The date for submission of the pre-qualified documents too has been extended till July 31. The ‘iconic’ building, with a height of 526 metre or 1,725 feet, will come up on a plot ad-measuring 1.4 lakh sq metre and is estimated to cost Rs 4,000 crore to match the majesty of the Petronas Twin Towers (88 storeys in each tower) in Malaysia and the Taipei 101 (101 storeys) in Taiwan. Once, and if, completed, it will be the third-tallest building in the world after Burj Dubai (over 2,000 feet) and Freedom Tower in New York (1,776 feet) — both are under construction. So far, 12 prospective developers have shown interest. These builders met MMRDA officials and requested them to relax some of the pre-qualified conditions, the authority official said. “We agreed to the request of developers as we want better competition,” metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said. In view of the revised eligibility criteria, the sale of pre-qualified document has been extended up to July 2, Mr Gaikwad said. According to MMRDA, a Maharashtra government undertaking, the building would have a built-up area of about 60 lakh square metre. The proposed building will come up alongside an inter-state bus terminal. The bus terminal and the building will be on design, build, own, operate and transfer (DBOOT) basis under public-private partnership format. “Considering the growing demand for premium built-up space in Mumbai, the state government desires to develop an iconic building that will acquire the status of among 10 tallest buildings in the world,” MMRDA said in its global invitation for pre-qualification of bidders for the project.