Malaysia has completed the tower spire of the building that’s set to become the world’s second-tallest skyscraper.
The Merdeka 118 will reach a height of 678.9 metres when completed, the tallest structure after the 830-metre tall Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The project will be an economic catalyst for the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at a ceremony.
The development comes as a new Covid-19 variant has prompted Malaysia’s government to pause the transition to the endemic phase of the outbreak until it obtains more data on the strain. Malaysia and Singapore on Monday opened a land and air vaccinated travel lane, with plans to further reopen their borders.
The project also attracted criticism on social media, with some users questioning the need for another skyscraper at a time when the economy is recovering from protracted lockdowns. Malaysia is already home to the world’s tallest twin structures, the 452-metre-high Petronas Twin Towers, which were officially opened in 1999.
The Merdeka 118 project, which began in 2015 and is valued at 5 billion ringgit (US$) (HK$1.2 billion), will open to the public in the final quarter of 2022, according to its owner Permodalan Nasional, the country’s top asset management company.
The tower, which is 85 per cent complete, will house the first Park Hyatt Hotel in Malaysia and the highest observation deck in Southeast Asia, in addition to a mall, a museum and a mosque.
Source: The South China Morning Post
