Hurdles behind India's & vertical ambitions
Despite surging urbanisation, booming real estate and ambitious city visions, the country has only one building that towers over the 300-metre mark. Apoorva Mittal traces
Despite surging urbanisation, booming real estate and ambitious city visions, the country has only one building that towers over the 300-metre mark. Apoorva Mittal traces the limit of our vertical ambitions.Non-profit organisation Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) defines supertalls as buildings that measure at least 300 metres (984 feet). Lokhandwala Minerva in Mumbai is at 301 metres. Completed in 2022, it is India’s first — and so far only — building that crosses the threshold. Just about.KEY REASONS INDIA HAS NO SUPERTALLS“There are many bottlenecks namely fragmented regulations, approval red tape and lack of infrastructure readiness that prevent supertall buildings from emerging. The local bodies (municipalities) in most Indian cities are not used to handling such projects for approvals. The requisite technical personnel and specialised expertise to examine them are not there. Further, there are too many complexities in file movements for approvals. Also, the infrastructure support, be it roads and traffic management, parking, fire-fighting and safety arrangements, water, power and sewage arrangements, etc, which are essential for such buildings, are also missing. For the next two decades, India should not waste its time on promoting supertall buildings. There are other pressing issues — affordable housing, fast and clean mobility, solid waste management, walkability, urban flood management, adequate water management, heat cooling plans, air quality management, etc — that we need to focus on,” said Prof PSN Rao, Dean, School of Planning and Architecture.“From an engineering perspective, constructing tall or even supertall buildings is not an extraordinary challenge.
The more critical limitation is urban infrastructure. Tall buildings bring higher densities, which, in turn, demand robust support systems: Wider roads, efficient public transport, reliable water supply, sewage networks and emergency services. Without aligning infrastructure capacity with vertical growth, such developments risk overburdening the city rather than enhancing it. Supertall buildings typically involve 20-30% higher costs per square foot due to the complexity of structural systems, vertical transportation and safety requirements. In a market that is highly cost-sensitive, developers often find midrise, high-density developments more viable. But this is changing. With the rise of transit-oriented development and more integrated planning approaches in India, taller buildings can be meaningfully and responsibly incorporated. The focus going forward should be on achieving the right balance between density, infrastructure and livability," said Dikshu Kukreja, Managing principal at CP Kukreja Architects.131711513THE CASE AGAINST SUPERTALLS Diverts capital from affordable housing Increases energy consumption Benefits a narrow eliteAdds pressure on infrastructureMost of north India is highly seismic and that makes construction expensiveExpensive maintenanceConstruction needs to be clean, green, resilient and climate sensitiveTHE CASE FOR SUPERTALLSEfficient land use in dense citiesReduced commute distances (if integrated with transit)Creation of mixed-use urban hubsGlobal positioning of cities With urban population projected to exceed 600 million by 2030, horizontal model is reaching its limit.Supertalls are moving from ‘vanity projects’ to economic necessity in select urban contexts“Historically, the absence of supertall buildings in India was not due to a lack of architectural ambition, but a direct result of urban economics and some regulatory frameworks.
The BriefWire