Multi-billionaire Saudi royal plans 'mile-high tower in desert'

London, Mar 30 : The multi-billionaire owner of the Savoy otel in London is planning to construct a mile-high tower in the esert.

Masterminded by British-based engineers, the building will be onstructed in a "mini-city" near the Red Sea port of Jeddah and ould be twice the height of the world's tallest building.

The Mile High Tower, almost seven times the height of the Canary harf tower, will overtake skyscrapers planned or under onstruction in Dubai and Kuwait, reports Times Online.

The project is the brainchild of Prince al-Walid bin Talal, a ember of the Saudi royal family, who has a fortune estimated at 1 billion pounds and is the world's 19th richest person, ccording to Forbes magazine.

The 51-year-old's Kingdom Holdings has appointed a joint venture et up by Hyder Consulting and Arup, the London enginerring irms, to build the 5 billion pounds tower.

The logistics of carrying out construction at such a height will ake the project technically and financially difficult. The tower ust be capable of conquering extremes of temperature as well as owerful desert winds.

The building will be fitted with a giant computer-operated damper tretching down several floors - to counter the nausea-inducing way caused by the wind.

The structure will also be stabilized by two mini-towers, lanking the building's base and attached to the main structure y arched sky-bridges.

ANI