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Nilesh's Weblog


Touching the sky, almost

October 19, 2003 03:23 PM


With the tallest skyscraper in the world having moved to Taiwan recently, I thought of digging out information on India's own high rises. Shreepati Arcade It is surprising to note the India lists 46th in the list of nations with largest number of skyscrapers. India has 21 highrises listed. It is equally unsurprising to know that no Indian city exists in the top 100 cities having high rises. And China which has a population of 1.3 billion as compared to India's 1 billion, has about 1405 highrises. A small city in China, Qingdao has more highrises than the whole of India and more than twice as tall buildings. The tallest building in India is a residential structure Shreepati Arcade (adjoining figure) in Mumbai with about 45 floors and 161m high. In contrast New York has the world's tallest residential structure Trump World Tower with a dizzying 72 floors and 262.4m in height. 19 out of 21 top listed Indian structures are in Mumbai. Compare these to the 405 listed structures in New York. As for me, the farthest I have been from ground was on the penultimate floor of the Air India building in Mumbai.

Huh, so what if there are so few skyscrapers?... Historically, skyscrapers have been indicators of economic growth. They help boosting the ego of a nation. An impressive skyline always tells about the economic prowess of the region. That's what I think. Notwithstanding the unpredictability of their survival ;-). Tell me what you think.



Comments

43 comments have been added. Add your comments.

1. Sameer said...

There are unconfirmed reports about a tall (and I'm talking *very* tall) building coming up at Prabhadevi in Mumbai. They say it'll push a 100 floors. But I don't have any confirmation on that!

on Oct 21, 02:37 PM | link to this comment


2. JBritto said...

according to this: http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/bu/sk/st/tp/rs/ the tallest residential structure in the world is in Dubai and it looks breathtaking: http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/im/df/220254/ . Mumbai skyscrapers are dingy compared to that. I hope one of these "new" cities like Gurgaon gets more skyscrapers. Btw, why dont you take some pictures of indian skyscrapers and send them to skyscrapers.com? They list anything above 10 stories as a highrise. Skyscrapers.com has a lot of good information IMHO

on Oct 22, 12:31 PM | link to this comment


3. Sachin nair said...

What's up Nilesh ... sent a mail to mailATNilesh // din't wrk or still no reply ..am currently in a cyber cafe in DELHI ..yea ... meet yours truly; the latest incharge of a full business unit!! Back in mumbai in 3 days time .. incharge of DAD's factory this time ... lol ..

back to topic ... wre have a 3rd 30 floor building comimng up in mulund at nirmal complex .. and 2 more coming up near Model Town. Good things r up for mulund!

on Oct 22, 12:47 PM | link to this comment


4. Aman said...

If you check skyscrapers.com and go to Mumbai's page that city alone has 596 skyscrapers. That is more than Shanghai which has 593 skyscrpaers. I am wondering how you got to the magical number of India just having 21 skyscrapers. I admit China has a lot more skyscrapers than India. According to skyscrpaers.com China has over 8000 while India has a little over 900. Even then the website admits their are thousands more skyscrapers in India unlisted in their website. Another interesting fact is there is more than 24 million squarefeet of office space comming up in the country over the next 36 months. That is a lot considering Nariman point has Bombays's main cluster if skyscrapers has about 4 million square feet alltogether.

on Oct 23, 05:47 PM | link to this comment


5. Aman said...

If you check skyscrapers.com and go to Mumbai's page that city alone has 596 skyscrapers. That is more than Shanghai which has 593 skyscrpaers. I am wondering how you got to the magical number of India just having 21 skyscrapers. I admit China has a lot more skyscrapers than India. According to skyscrpaers.com China has over 8000 while India has a little over 900. Even then the website admits their are thousands more skyscrapers in India unlisted in their website. Another interesting fact is there is more than 24 million squarefeet of office space comming up in the country over the next 36 months. That is a lot considering Nariman point has Bombays's main cluster if skyscrapers has about 4 million square feet alltogether.

on Oct 23, 05:47 PM | link to this comment


6. anand said...

Give it some time. Once you have a few billion dollar plus revenue companies with enough cash to throw around, they will get around to building sky scrapers.

At around 2010, when India should be a rillion dollar plus economy, mumbai would look like shangai does today.

on Nov 5, 11:14 AM | link to this comment


7. anisha said...

dear nilesh,
you may be interested to know that both the air india building and the new york UN headquarters building will be used as a projection surface for our laser beams that will project messages from all over the world, entered by SMS, between december 9-12, 2003! for more info, check out www.helloworldproject.com. BTW, i am desperately looking for more info on the air india bldg (for our website), i.e. who built it! best, anisha

on Nov 12, 08:02 PM | link to this comment


8. Anonymous Cowherd said...

At around 2010, when India should be a rillion dollar plus economy, mumbai would look like shangai does today.

Heh, I seriously doubt that
BTW I thought india's GDP was already something like 2.6 trillion?

on Dec 3, 09:50 PM | link to this comment


9. anand said...

GDP based on PPP is 2.6 trillion. Real GDP is still in the 500 - 550 billion range.

on Dec 8, 04:27 PM | link to this comment


10. taylor said...

hi

on Mar 23, 12:17 AM | link to this comment


11. Anonymous said...

The skyscrapers we are talking about in India are a zilch in comparison to other countries.In fact they don't even qualify as that.We need to have some really good skyscrapers ...at least above 50 floors .I have heard that 4 towers of 60 floors each are coming in southh mumbai...lets hope it happens .

on Sep 6, 05:14 PM | link to this comment


12. Manish said...

Shanghai may have some very tall buidings, but the overall density of skyscrapers there pales in comparison to Hong Kong. Hong Kong--now that's really Asia's answer to Manhattan, or it is at least so far. I suspect we should give five more years for Shanghai to take over if construction there goes on at the current pace. Anyway, Shanghai has ridiculous looking buidings, tall though they may be. Hong Kong's building's, owing to the British influence, perhaps, are a class apart. Maybe there's a lesson to be learnt there.

on Sep 7, 11:19 PM | link to this comment


13. Rohan said...

a yo watup?
i live in new york and the truth i'm saying is that the new WTC is gonna be 2000 feet in height.makin it tallest structure on earth.and indian buildings are little lollypops compared to USA's akyscrapers

on Sep 10, 03:30 AM | link to this comment


14. freakonaleash said...

u people talking of impressive buildings?? u should check out the international tech park coming up in Bangalore and apparently there are like 50 very tall structures coming up in B'lore plus hundreds of impressive shopping arcades.and by the way B'lore's the fastest growing city in Asia.

on Sep 10, 06:37 PM | link to this comment


15. Monty said...

I think you've got the stats a little wrong. I found most websites saying that the height of Shreepati Arcade is 153m as opposed to 161m you mentioned. You might want to check up on that :D

on Sep 14, 11:44 AM | link to this comment


16. ashish sinha said...

Taipei was never in the race till it got the "101" lets hope something similar happens to our Guargaon/ Bombay.

on Nov 7, 03:17 AM | link to this comment


17. anup said...

I am cent per cent sure that the information provided on the website skyscraperpage.com about india is a blunt lie. Originaly from bombay, I have been staying in new york city for a while now.
Considering the fact that they mention hoboken ( a small town near new york city) with 26 high rises maximum being a 17 storey structure, guess where they have made a mistake counting buildings in mumbai to only 26. Also jersey city where I stayed, is among top 100. I can bet for trillions and zillions of dollars that, numbered at 80 in the world, jersey city is nowhere near mumbai. If you count the types of structures they have listed as high rises from jersey city, our mumbai may have to be listed as having more than 10,000 high rises!

Since I may not be coming back to see your comments, please post any feedback if you want on my email anupkumarrai@yahoo.com

thankyou

on Nov 16, 01:54 AM | link to this comment


18. satyabrata said...

mumbai is emerging as a city having large number of skyscrapers in coming 10-20 years

on Dec 15, 04:48 PM | link to this comment


19. Sunil said...

I don't like the structer of center of India Tower, comon show the world that India's the best so, built cool buidings.

on Feb 17, 03:41 AM | link to this comment


20. vivek singh said...

please be sure about the ranking of mumbai (previously bombay) in the list of cities with most no of tall buildings
the emporis database has listed it at the 22nd spot just behind shanghai
it will take hardly any moment for india to rise to the zenith were the likes of usa, uk, japan or china now stands
india a country corrupted to its grassroot level will take some time to reach the quality mark in having world class skyscrapers
there r some 20 buildings in mumbai more than 100m tall while the city in which i live has the tallest building standing at just 91m
i promise u would see a better india by 2010
thanks for ur information

on Mar 5, 01:28 PM | link to this comment


21. Pavan C. JOshi said...

Don't Sweat Guys!

Guess who rents tall towers. Banks!
It's cheap to build tall. 20-25 Cr. for 20 storey tower
Now Mumbai is to be a bank town. It always was, except for the parts we let run away to Karachi(If Aga Khan was to be still based in-city, sure some tall ones come up), and lately ...bloody Dubai. Really! What ever happens in Dubai may be considered morally Mumbai's, these gold smugglers have made good coin at Mumbai's cost. Else, Bang & Gurgaon have action, Noida etc. also

Govt. of India Gandhi-lota, Nehru-dhoti gloves are off.
Time to build, regain lost ground.

1 question, why tall equals f__king high price???

on Mar 10, 07:57 AM | link to this comment


22. Pavan C. Joshi said...

Baap Log!,

Unique reasons for going tall in India! Culture...

'Phallus' oriented culture. Traditional rivalry between and betwixt the 'Minaret'/'Lingam'. Needs to be un-locked and channelled into buildings. Notice Parsis also build tall towers. Others like Marwari's need to be encouraged, or they'll keep building camel sarai's (haveli's) in their native Thar village. Rope in Sikh's, Buddists, Sikhs, Hindus, X-tians...I say let's communalise the whole thing if we REAALLLY would like to see tall buildings our sides. Idea;)...No!!!

Incentivise. If my co. has big tall tower with my name on it...doooor tak mera hi naam roshan ho, kya baat. Wah!

on Mar 10, 08:14 AM | link to this comment


23. Pavan C. Joshi said...

1 more thang.

Call me biased, I have yet to see a clsuster of towers as
gorgeous as Powai Hirananadani by Hafeez Contractor.

Towers capture the decadent style of Mumbai. And amplify both the buildings, and Mumbai in association. I see, Fort, Gateway, Taj and Ballard Estate, Mumbai Port style reflected in Powai Towers. Rare humility for teh Arch. to inherit form the City arch. inheritance. Name me 1 project of such scale reflecting it' s city.

We have some good guys. Let's buck 'em up.

Question: Weight-loss program for towers? Replace steel with carbon-fiber. Yes. Pls. to post how/know?

on Mar 10, 08:25 AM | link to this comment


24. Anonymous said...

The future Worlds tallest building is going up in Noida a suberb of Delhi and is going to be taller then the burj dubai. The Noida tower shall be in bsiness by 2013 if all goes according to plan.

on Apr 25, 06:19 AM | link to this comment


25. sunil patel said...

Don't worry man in the future india will have the most amazing stuff in the world.

on Apr 26, 08:33 AM | link to this comment


26. rohit rawat said...

yes we dont have skyscrapers in india.and if there are some they are not skyscrapers.

on May 11, 09:15 PM | link to this comment


27. rajdatta said...

i think we desparately need skyscrapers in mumbai as they are the only solution to the growing density

on Jun 2, 09:53 PM | link to this comment


28. Yash said...

well, in china they have skyscrapers in several cities, whereas in India, they are confined to only 2-3 cities. Also, I don't know why the million plus cities of India don't go for highrises as a solution to the housing problem, it would also add some grace to them.

on Jun 3, 03:21 AM | link to this comment


29. Animesh said...

The problem is the age old laws that govern the construction industry. Floor space index or FSI is the root cause why High Rise buildings are not so common. Currently the ratio is 1:1, so assuming you envisage a building of 100 stories each having four apartments of 1250 square each, you would need to build it on a 11 acre plot. This is the reason why builders would prefer to build 10 buildings of 19 stories each and complete the project faster.

A city like Bombay has 400 acres of land which is under the Costal Regulation Zone. Some of it is used to make salt. For heavens sake, you dont use land in a metro city like Bombay to make salt!

on Jun 15, 02:35 PM | link to this comment


30. sid said...

Think abt, how many skyscrapers u've got in europe? Not many. Does it mean they're not industrially developed??

Naive. Eh !

on Jul 5, 02:19 PM | link to this comment


31. Positronikmind said...

Highrises are about pride , about reaching where few can! just think of it Noida tower , 710 metres above ground glittering in night. the news would be all around the world.. its like putting down a spear on the ground to show.. HEY WORLD ! WAKE UP .. INDIA HAS ARRIVED (to spank ur asses)

on Jul 10, 10:19 PM | link to this comment


32. AP said...

Hi every one I am interested in conducting a study on disaster prepardness in skyscrapers of Mumbai, If any one has information on the topics like, preventing disasters in building with respect to fire, earthquake, floods, sponsers for such studies, etc......pls forward it to my email ID itsinmind@rediffmail.com

on Jul 26, 10:02 PM | link to this comment


33. Skyscraperfan said...

For the latest on Indian skyscrapers, highrises, skylines, aerial shots there is no place like

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=450

on Aug 24, 10:11 PM | link to this comment


34. karthik said...

sir,
we all know that there are many software companies in india both indian and MNCs.if you happen to vist cities like bangalore and hyderabad and you visit the IT parks you will find massive buildings whick may be about five to six stories tall.but if those office buildings were constructed in a high rise fashion then i am sure each will be around thirty to forty stories tall.so if these companies build their offices in that manner then all the major cities in india would be having many skyscrapers.

on Dec 7, 12:49 PM | link to this comment


35. Mukund said...

If india builds skyscrapers, atleast they will show there wealth but in 2010, India will have the best and the tallest skyscrapers.

on Dec 21, 01:55 AM | link to this comment


36. Skycrapermaniac said...

I agree with positronikman.....but...have seen a picture of how the noida tower looks like? it is hideous. Also, i do hope Mumbai will place a more efficient mass transit system in place. Think about it...would it be possible for the gov't to allow a 100 story bldg that can accomodate thousands of workers (most of them rich enough to own cars) to be built in the middle of a city? Think of how much it would strain the roads. The only way NYC can accomodate its office working crowd is by its mammoth subway system. It is impossible for Mumbai to have a subway system, because ground water will seep through if you dig deeper than four feet.

on Feb 7, 03:12 AM | link to this comment


37. umesh said...

Dear all,
having read all ur comments, furthermore mumbai is getting tallest building ever....72 floors (india intl. trade centre) tallest building in india.... & yes, mumbai skyline is very poor & saddening..it should improve & should look impressive as it boost image of country & help economical growth.

on Mar 3, 02:00 PM | link to this comment


38. lkjain said...

According to http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=102037, Mumbai stands on the 35th place in the world discussing upon the tallest buildings in the world with 11,914,398 people, area covered - 621 km², 554 tall buildings and with 2,129 points.

on Mar 5, 06:40 PM | link to this comment


39. Nippun said...

i really hope india gets some skyscrapers soon. i also hope they do something about the slums/poverty around the cities. if u look at shangai or beijing on teh net u will notice the cities look as clean as america. we really need to clean up the streets, make better roads and clean the rubbish of the streets. there are too many ditches, slums and bad roads/infrastructure at the moment in indian cities. the delhi metro is a start i guess. mumbai is too cramped up and i think gurguan and delhi are teh places where the high rises should be built. ALSO indias tallest building is 40 stories high. i am willing to bet that china will have 200 building taller than this. the buildings in india arent skyscrapers, they are high rises. a true skyscraper should be around 80 stories+.

on Mar 29, 01:19 PM | link to this comment


40. naus said...

Shanghai may have some very tall buidings, but the overall density of skyscrapers there pales in comparison to Hong Kong.


No. You are wrong. Shanghai now has greater density. It's not just Shanghai's Pudong area that has tall buildings. Hong Kong is "small" compared to Shanghai.

on Jun 1, 12:10 AM | link to this comment


41. divya singh said...

hi Nilesh
i dont see the point in compairing ourselves with New York or any other city 4 that matter cause we still ve to go a long way as far as "growth" is concerned. wat u actually do in a sky scraper is u increase the density cause a large number of people live on a small piece of land. this leads to further issues such as water shortage etc due to concentrated population. b4 we say that sky scrapers should be built n even taller at that, so that we can boast of our economic prowess to the world, we should c that we eliminate other issues or these issues will only magnify further by building taller buildings.
we need to "grow" n not "superficially grow" to show anyone that we r a growing nation or economy.

let me know wat u think on this

on Jun 8, 12:21 AM | link to this comment


42. Nippun said...

ARGH!!! im so angry at those laws preventing high rises from being built. i live in auckland new zealand but have a fair idea of wats happening in india as i went there 5 months ago. the delhi metro is great, its cool how its over ground and under...the govt is taking positive steps. the problem lies in the poor infrastructure in india. this prevents very high building from being built. a power cut could stuff up a huge tower. firefighters cant cope with huge buildings becuz of the poor infrastructure. earthquakes... the twin SD towers are 250m which is good but compared to shanghai its nothing. shanghai has 3 or 4 400-500m towers in construction. india is unsure if a 320m tower (trade centre) should be built - come on thats nothing~! also the chinese govt wants to show off all they can, they want to showcase china to the rest of the world, india doesnt have this positive approach. two projects, the katangi tower (a joke, it looks like a pyramid) and the noida tower (more realistic and it had some support/progress was made) were huge: the noida tower was meant to be 700m or so. nothing has been heard after a lot of hype for SEVERAL months. none of the proposed projects are carried on. shows the general attitude of whoever makes the decision - opposite of china.

on Jun 11, 11:57 AM | link to this comment


43. Sameer said...

I am lover of skyscrapers. But I am worried about skyline in India. Not a single city have good skyline which will compete with east Asian cities like shanghai, Singapore, hongkong. Why govt doesn’t allows for tall building as it is the only solution for the shortage of space in cities.
I want to know that project of katangi tower near jabalpur is really going on or it is just a joke.
One more, I have heard that oberoi construction group is building 90-floors building in worli mumbai. Is it true?

on Jul 6, 04:11 PM | link to this comment


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