Islamabad: Development changing skyline of capital

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Myra Imran
With rapid increase in the number of high-rise buildings and development work underway across the town, the skyline of the capital city has completely changed from what it was few years back and the town surely looks well on way to matching any modern metropolis elsewhere.

For years a bank building at Zero Point stood majestically as the most impressive in town but that status has long since been taken away by other structures and landmarks. Massive development has seen several new buildings come up while others more stylish and mighty are being built that promise to make the Capital look truly modern in the years to come.

Among them, of course would be the Centaurus complex in the commercial heartland of city that will have a 37-storey hotel, residential apartments having 21 storeys and a 25-storey corporate office tower besides a shopping mall.

The magnificent design of the complex indeed threatens to overshadow some of the existing buildings and those that would eventually rise. Built close to the residential areas, the complex has also been criticised for damaging the peaceful environment of the area in the years to come but with the national monument on one side and the regal Faisal Mosque on the other, the trio of skyscrapers is bound to stand out.

Just as the Faisal Mosque sitting in the lap of the Margalla Hills is a setting fit for a picture postcard, town planners see Centaurus as another of Islamabad’s significant landmarks on its completion in 2010.

But just on the other side of the road, a long stretch of commercial buildings in Blue Area is an eyesore with no plaza, barring perhaps only a few, that could be rated as having quality looks. Fortunately, however, some of the tall buildings just across the road seem to make up for that somewhat.

The plazas in Blue Area have long been the blot on the face of the town but many of them today are picture of grave neglect. “The least the owners of these buildings can do is to have them whitewashed, so that they do not look as dirty as they are,” said Shahid Nadeem, who visits the area frequently.

Sadia Malik, a bank employee on the other hand pointed out that not even a single plaza in the entire length of this commercial hub had been built with any aesthetic sense. “I hope that some of the new buildings being constructed would have appropriate designs,” she said.

She suggested that the CDA should come up with some plan to renew old buildings. “By adding small things here and there, these buildings can easily match the surroundings,” she said while emphasizing that filthy look carried by the back side of those plazas needed urgent attention of authorities.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=139522