With more skyscrapers due to be built in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital dreams to be the new Dubai or Tokyo of Southeast Asia.
KUALA LUMPUR – Kuala Lumpur, since the years of former Prime Minister Mohammad Mahathir, is filled up with ambitions to rival the world’s most sophisticated metropolis. The Petronas twin towers and its shopping mall were a first step towards the idea to turn the once sleepy town into a new sophisticated Kuala Lumpur. However, the Petronas Towers are now almost approaching their 20 anniversary – they opened back to 1997. Kuala Lumpur needs to revive its dreams of grandeur. Over the next six years a string of mega-projects will once more transform the city centre with the ambition to make rivaling with other large world metropolis such as Dubai or Tokyo.
Some of the largest projects for the capital include the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) and Warisan Merdeka.The projects are ambitious and will serve as showcases of Malaysian entrepreneurial spirit and its know-how in urban development. They will also help to further turn the city into a new regional financial and business hub.
The most ambitious is the Warisan Merdeka development, which comprises a new tower to become the tallest in the country, once completed by 2019. The building will be 596 meter high –almost 150 meters more than the Twin Towers – and will comprise 118 floors. It is due to be built in the area of Merdeka Stadium, the mythical place where independence was called and today a wild piece of jungle in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur.
According to reports, both Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara will be preserved as national heritage buildings. TRX is due to become the new international financial and economic hub of the capital. It will be dominated by another skyscraper of 71 floors and is due for completion by 2018. The first phase of the new financial district is due to kick off in the middle of next year; Last but not least, the Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) project will take place in a former heritage area – on the site of the old Pudu Prison, which has been demolished in 2010 except the main prison gate. The BBCC project will include an 88-storey signature tower, similar in its architecture to Burj Khalifa in Dubai, integrating a 400-room hotel.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
