I just read this in the news. Daily Times has reported the inauguration of The Centaurus, Pakistan’s first seven-star hotel project, in Islamabad.
I am left wondering what are these people thinking? Can Pakistan afford, and sustain, a 7-star hotel? Do we really need one? And what is a 7-star hotel, after all? We can barely maintain a decent 2 or 3 star hotel in our major cities. Are we now competing with Dubai for architectural grandiosity? And whoever came up with the name should probably look for a job in Hollywood…
ISLAMABAD: The Centaurus, Pakistan’s first seven-star hotel project, was inaugurated on Thursday. The $350 million complex is planned to have a 37-storey deluxe hotel, with two 21-storey residential towers, a 25-storey corporate office complex, and a 5-storey shopping mall. The complex will have a parking lot that would accommodate over 2,000 vehicles. The project will be completed in three years… The Pak Gulf Construction Private Limited company (PGCL) and Messrs Atkins engineering company – the constructors of Dubai’s renowned Burj Al Arab – are executing the project. Saudi Arabian Al-Tamimi Group and the Sardar Group of Companies are making the investment….
President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday said it was “the right time to invest in Pakistan� because of the country’s positive economic policies of de-regulation, liberalisation and privatisation coupled with a liberal foreign exchange regimen. “We have opened all sectors of the economy for investment and the scourge of red-tapism and bureaucratic delays are being done away with,� said the president at the foundation-laying ceremony of The Centaurus.
“my ailing heart lies on the pavement… And I am an old man. ”
Look around, you’ll find mine next to yours, and I am a young man. For whatever reason, there is great inequity between the wealth of the rich and the poor. But the point people who agree with me are trying to make is that the money that will be spent at this hotel will not otherwise automatically end up helping the common. On the contrary, maybe it will open up a good number of service jobs that people who have no other recourse can take advantage of.
I find it sad that we have some of the best natural scenic points in the world (and whoever has been up north knows that there is no bias in my words) and yet we have failed to build places to attract tourists. Think about it, there’s not much difference between hiking up a mountain in the Alps and somewhere in Pakistan…why does doing one cost so much more than the other…it’s about time we took advantage of our natural strengths.
This site is about Pakistan and discission/comments should be Pakistan centric. Most of the particepents are generaly of Pakistani origin here however some times one notices non-pakistani names here too. Nothing wrong with that. More people learn about Pakistan the better it is. What is not right is non-Pakistanis joining the discussions just for the sake of making some negative or hurtful comments or remarks about Pakistan and her people. They know who they are. One need not to name them. Would it be too much for them to avoid such negativity?
There is something called a ’social conscience’ which I find sadly lacking in most of the comments made.
Almost a hundred years ago our great poet had this to say:
Hum mashriq kay maskeenoon ka dil maghrib mein ja atka hai
Waan kantar sub bilauri hain…yaan aik purana matka hai.
Wish someone had written too about the needs of the slum dwellers of islamabad and the other basic things that the capital city so badly lacks. But a 7 star ‘burj’ fires the imagination…. dealing with the realities on the ground on the other hand is depressing. So, all luck to the ‘pie-in-the-sky wallahs… my ailing heart lies on the pavement… And I am an old man.
I don’t mind a new first class hotel being built in Islamad. Islamad needs more hotels. But calling it a 7-star hotel just reflects the rampant inflation in the country in every field of life — economic as well as social. A thousand rupee note has been changed to five thousand (in purchasing power), VIPs are labled as VVIPs. And therefore a 5-star hotel is being dubbed as 7-star.
I really hope they build it and build it good. Whats wrong with a hotel being built if its not being funded from my parents tax money? These are the kinds of foreign investment projects we need. The builders aren’t stupid, I am sure they have done a study on the NEED to build such a hotel and there are obviously people who will stay in it. It will provide jobs, it will give filthy rich people something to waste their money on inside Pakistan. I hope to have dinner in that revolving restaurant next time I am in Islamabad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurus_Hotel_Islam abad
By the way you can see some hotel/mall architect’s plan pics here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asmamirza/212334363/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asmamirza/212334362/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asmamirza/212334361/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asmamirza/212334360/
If it’s not govt. money then private organization has every right to build any project they wish. Like you and I every right to invest money as we desire despite there are people in misery every where. In the end of the day it will provide many people with jobs. I’m sure govt. able to milk out lot of money from the Hotel establishment in tax revenue but not sure where that money will end up eventually.
“So, what is it that makes a 7-star a 7-star. I guess we will find out ”
It’ll cost more :D
i.e. it will be out of reach of a lot MORE people than your Marriot, PC, etc and this exclusivity will make it “BETTER.”
Compare to the clubs in Pakistan. Does anyone actually care about the facilities? No. It’s all about showing off. Which is okay, we NEED the money of the wealthy to change hands as often as possible.