THE completion date for the world’s tallest tower has been pushed back to 2019, a Saudi Arabian billionaire said yesterday – almost six years after launching the record-breaking project.
The Jeddah Tower is to rise more than a kilometre – almost 3,300 feet – above the desert, making it taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
“The project was delayed… but it’ll open (in) 2019,” Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told AFP during a visit to the site beside the Red Sea.
Alwaleed chairs the Kingdom Holding Company, whose affiliated Jeddah Economic Company is developing the spire-topped landmark.
The project contractor Saudi Binladin Group was among construction firms in the kingdom that suffered financially after a collapse in oil revenues from 2014.
The company, which has developed other prominent buildings in Saudi Arabia, was founded more than 80 years ago by the father of deceased Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Alwaleed first announced plans for the tower in August 2011, saying it would take 36 months to build after the start of construction.
By November 2014, a four-storey foundation was in place and Alwaleed said the building would be finished in 2018.
But that was before the kingdom felt the full force of a drop in oil revenues. (The Sun)
