Purbachal set to get a comprehensive commercial township

To cater to the growing demand for business spaces, a sprawling comprehensive commercial township is going to be developed in Purbachal new city area spending $8 billion.

According to sources at Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and the developer company, the commercial township named 'Central Business District' (CBD) will be constructed on over 100 acres of land in the next seven years.

It will have a total of 41 skyscrapers, including a 465-metre tall 96-storey iconic Legacy Tower, 71-storey Liberty Tower and 52-storey Language Tower to accommodate business houses in a total space of about 38.441 million square feet (sft).

Of the other 38 skyscrapers, each will have a height equivalent to a 40-storey building, the sources said, adding that a large convention centre was also included in the development plan. 

"We've already submitted our plan to Rajuk for its approval. Once approved, we'll move to commence development work on the CBD by March 2020," Syed Qamrul Islam, Chief Operating Officer and Director (Operations) of Consortium of PowerPac Holdings and Kajima Corporation, the developer of the area, told UNB.

The consortium, a joint-venture of Bangladeshi firm PowerPac and Japanese firm Kajima, got the allotment of a total of 114 acres of land in Sector-19 of Purbachal New Township Project from Rajuk, the development authority of capital Dhaka, to build the new commercial hub through an open auction in 2018.

The sources said PowerPac will work as the lead sponsor of the project while Kajima extend its support as a technical partner.

They said the PowerPac-Kajima consortium has already paid Tk 317.63 crore to Rajuk in advance, 10 percent of the total land price, as per a condition of the auction.

Soon after receiving the allotment of the project, PowerPac officials said, they signed a contract with Chinese firm -- Power China International Group Ltd -- to appoint it as the construction contractor while world's 7th largest architect company South Korean Heerim Architect and Planners Co Ltd was engaged as the project architect.

French firm Archetype Construction Holdings Ltd was engaged for construction and project management while Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) for soil test mobilisation and Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) for traffic impact assessment (TIA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), they said.

PowerPac also appointed Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC), India for the project's feasibility study to ascertain its commercial viability.

According to the sources, Rajuk convened a high-level coordination meeting last week on the project's development plan submitted by PowerPac-Kajima consortium to review the overall progress of the project.

Representatives from PowerPac-Kajima, Heerim Architect and Price Waterhouse Cooper were present at the meeting in addition to top Rajuk officials. 

At the meeting, the international expert team members of the PowerPac-Kajima consortium made a presentation on the master plan, building layout design, latest earthquake prevention technology and smart-green city concept.

They informed the meeting that South Korean renowned architecture firm-Heerim- has been working at the site since October 2018.

At the meeting, the Rajuk chairman informed that eminent professor Dr Jamilur Reza Chowdhury has been urged to give his expert opinions as Rajuk has no expert to oversee the mega-development plan of the business city with so many skyscrapers.

PowerPac officials expressed the hope that the Central Business District will play a vital role in meeting the growing demand for commercial spaces in Dhaka city where many business houses are operating in residential areas due to inadequate commercial spaces with necessary facilities. 

They said the Purbachal CBD will have open spaces of 57 acres while additional green area will be of 12.50 acres.

It will have office spaces of 12.99 million sft in 20 towers while there will be 3,858 residential units as well in 15 towers.

There will be a space for parking of 40,000 vehicles in the project, said the PowerPac officials.