ISLAMABAD, 2 November 2006 — The Centaurus, a gateway to Pakistan’s construction industry, boasts several distinguishing features.
The project is a joint venture of Pak Gulf Construction Pvt. Ltd. (PGCL), established as a result of collaboration of two recognized construction icons — Sardar Group of Companies (SGC) of Pakistan and Al-Tamimi Group (ATG) of Saudi Arabia.
To be completed in three years, the Centaurus will emerge as the icon of Pakistan. It encompasses a state-of-the-art futuristic multi-purpose complex, comprising a seven-star hotel deluxe, two towers for luxury residential apartments, a tower for commercial offices and a five-storied mega inward looking shopping mall.
Its exclusive features include a sprinkler system with the provision of the latest fire fighting technology, the Centaurus Complex that will help provide water supply for the fire brigade, a fire hose reel for fire safety that will be made available on each floor of the complex, a smoke control and pressurization to avoid damages by smoke, service elevators for fire fighters, an LSF Cable System with is cables highly resistant to fire, a SCADA System.
SCADA system — the latest technology used for monitoring, and many other systems including close circuit cameras, panic alarms, emergency lights, illuminated safety signs and excess control cards are also planned for the project to enhance security network of the project.
The project, whose groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, is situated at the heart of the federal capital between the two main avenues — Jinnah and Faisal — covering 6.6 acres of land. “After its completion, the Centaurus will offer an experience of architectural brilliance stimulating one’s senses with incomparable facilities,” a spokesman of the project said.
Welcoming this mega project in the private construction sector, the president hoped that it would help the country in attracting more overseas investments.
Pakistan is presently ranked among the states that have opened their local markets for open investments in almost all development sectors. Pakistan, with its agriculture-based economy, depends mostly on natural resources like rain water and climatic changes. This prompted most of the foreign and local investors to pump in their capital in the industrial sector over the past several years. Consequently, this led to a positive increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves that stand close to $100 billion and the GDP maintaining a steady growth rate.
Power generation, telecommunication, construction in the private sector, port development and operations, oil and gas, services/infrastructure, and the social and agriculture sectors are open for foreign investments.
The SGC has a long list of accomplishments from real estate development, architectural designing to high-tech engineering and electrical works. Headed by its Chief Executive Officer Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, the SGC has earned great reputation, especially in the construction of multi-storied facilities in all big cities of Pakistan. It has introduced a new vision in its projects and, therefore, is widely respected for the quality it has always ensured in every area it operates in.
Similarly, the ATG, one of the top business groups of the Kingdom, is presently engaged in many projects with various European and American companies.
Musharraf’s vision about attracting more investments represents the investment plans of Ilyas who is making efforts to revolutionize the private construction sector by introducing innovative architectural excellence in Pakistan.
