Inexperienced Sikder Group wants Iconic Tower project: Muhith

Local Sikder Group, which has no experience of constructing higher than four-storey buildings, has showed interest in erecting the proposed 142-storied Iconic Tower worth $1 billion, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

Only two entities -- Sikder Group and KPC Group of Companies -- took part in the bidding when the international tender for the building, touted to be the tallest in South Asia, was floated at the end of 2017, he said.

“The only problem with Sikder Group is that it lacks the experience of constructing taller buildings. I can easily reject its proposal because of their incompetence,” he told the gathered media at his secretariat office on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

The minister thinks the group has the backing of influential people.

“Now, Sikder may try to work jointly with KPC in the project to gain experience.”

Iconic Tower is a brainchild of Bangladesh-origin American businessman Kali Pradip Chaudhuri, who is the founder and chairman of KPC Group of Companies.

Four years ago, Chaudhuri pitched the idea of building a super skyscraper in Bangladesh to finance minister.

The government took on the project and made a plan to build the Iconic Tower in a public-private partnership.

Chaudhuri, who visited Bangladesh 45 times in the last four years, visited various places along with Muhith and finally settled on a spot in Purbachal for the project, which was initially expected to be complete by 2018.

It has not yet been decided how and by whom the building will be constructed, Muhith said.

The minister said he will try to speed up the project so that the prime minister can lay its foundation stone in her existing term.

The main auditorium of Iconic Tower's convention centre will be able to accommodate 5,000 people, while the main stadium of the sports complex will have a seating capacity of 50,000 spectators, Muhith said in his budget speech last year.

Once implemented, the project will facilitate trade and commerce and also create a lot of jobs opportunities.

The necessary allocations will be made for the proposed project, which will need 70 acres of land, the minister said.