Govt eyes 62-storey high-rise for navy
NEW DELHI: A new defence building – a 62-storey skyscraper – is set to redefine the skyline of Colaba, one of India’s most expensive neighbourhoods, with the government inching closer to awarding a contract for the project, officials familiar with the development said on Friday.
The 190-metre residential high-rise, being built for the Indian Navy, will be the tallest
defence building in the country, Hindustan Times has learnt.
It will come up on a 7,500square-metre plot, and the construction cost is likely to be upwards of ₹270 crore, the officials said.
The building with 220 apartments is expected to be completed within 30 months of the contract being awarded.
Latest construction techniques and materials will be used by the developer in line with a new defence building code approved by defence minister Rajnath Singh earlier this month, with a focus on contemporary and sustainable living/workspaces with green building standards, including energy efficiency, water conservation and handling waste, improved structural design, maintenance and fire safety, smart metering and multi-level parking, the above-cited officials said.
The building code, or what the government calls “scales of accommodation - 2022”, was revised after 13 years.
The upcoming navy residential complex in Colaba, Mumbai, will have a built-up area of 72,200 square metres and will house officers of the rank of lieutenant commanders to commodores (equivalent to majors to brigadiers), said one of the officials cited above, asking not to be named.
“The only choice was to go vertical as there’s no land in Mumbai, and the navy is facing a shortage of accommodation for officers. The new scales of accommodation (SoA) also focus on optimal use of land,” said a second official, who also asked not to be named.
Wind tunnel testing on the design of the high-rise, which will come up on a strip of land with sea on two sides, to check its structural integrity has already been done by a Thiruvananthapuram-based firm, said a third official.