Gulf Construction Online

World Digest

Update

01 October 2001

Tallest building plan to go ahead

Shanghai is going ahead with its plans to build the world's tallest building despite the September 11 terrorist attacks which brought down New York's World Trade Center.

According to the Shanghai Pudong New District Economic and Trade Office, plans to build the 466m, 94-storey Shanghai Global Financial Centre, neighbouring the world's third-tallest skyscraper, the Jinmao Building, have not been affected.

The new skyscraper will cover 335,420 sq m of floor space and surpass the world's current tallest building, the 452 m Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Sears Tower in Chicago is the second tallest building currently at 442 m.

Green light for container terminal

Ahmedabad: Kandla Port Trust (KPT), which runs one of India's busiest ports, has approved a proposal by Australia's P&O Ports to build a container terminal at Kandla in the western state of Gujarat, its chairman A K Joti said.

P&O Ports proposes to build the container terminal at the existing Kandla berths at a cost of 3.70 billion rupees ($77 million), he said.

Siemens wins rail contracts

Taipei: The Taiwan affiliate of Germany's Siemens Group has won core contracts from Kaohsiung City for the development of the first mass rapid transport (MRT) system in southern Taiwan worth close to NT$170 billion ($4.9 billion), industrial sources said.

Siemens Taiwan was awarded purchase contracts worth some 363 million euro ($332 million) for the building of the core electrical engineering system, signalling network and the railways of the 42 km MRT system by the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Co.

Malaysia 'scraps straits tunnel'

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia is having second thoughts about building a tunnel under the Straits of Johor, according to a regional news magazine.

The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review reported that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had decided to shelve the tunnel project, adding the decision "may boil down to economics".

It quoted a Malaysian official as saying that Dr Mahathir had also decided to terminate the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore rail line on the Malaysian side.

Beers awarded hotel deal

Vancouver: Beers, one of Skanska's American subsidiaries, has been awarded a contract for construction management services to build a $100 million, 28-storey hotel tower at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Beers' contract is worth $61.2 million.