Namaste Tower in Lower Parel Mumbai

Namaste Tower is a supertall skyscraper proposed for construction in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It will be 300 meters (984 ft) & 62 floors mixed use tower that will house a hotel, office and retail space. It has been designed by Atkins, Dubai. It will have 120,000 m2 of 2Gross Construction Area, 380 key luxury W Hotel, retail & office space will be 15,000 m2. It resembles the ‘Namaste’ gesture: two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting.

Namaste: Hotel and Office Tower
Category: Future Projects - Commercial
Location: Mumbai, India
Architects: WS Atkins, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Atkins, United Arab Emirates


Following the long tradition of great Indian Architecture it was our aim that the Namaste Tower will stand as a landmark structure, representative of the burgeoning economic and cultural significance of India. We aimed to design a building that would become representative of the city: the picture postcard of Mumbai.

Key Statistics:
• 120,000 m2 of Gross Construction Area
• 380 key luxury hotel
• Exclusive restaurants, bars, banqueting and spa facilities
• 9,000 m2 of A grade office space
• 6,000 m2 of world class retail space
• 300 m overall building height


“Namaste" : - The traditional Indian greeting of ‘Namaste’, where the hands are clasped together in greeting, is the inspiration for the design of this tower. In Sanskrit “Namaste` means “I bow to you`. It has a spiritual significance of negating one’s ego in the presence of another.

The Architecture of the Namaste Hotel builds on this ancient Indian expression. The two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting the city of Mumbai. In this way the architectural design of the hotel provides the ultimate symbol of hospitality and welcome, as seen in the as seen in the cultural context of India.

Visual Relationships to and from the Site

With a proposed height of 300 m the tower will be seen from a distance of more than 40 km. Therefore the visual appearance of the project as a major landmark is of great importance to the city of Mumbai.

Views from the tower will extend to the South over the Mahalkshi Race course towards the Mumbai Peninsula and to the South West over the Indian Ocean. The views to the north East are towards a number of adjacent towers that are currently being constructed. The orientation and massing of the tower have been designed in order to make the very best of these visual relationships.

The Building Skin

The tower has been designed to cater for large scale Indian weddings. The occasion of a Mehndi ceremony (where the hands and feet of the bride and groom are decorated with henna) is often one of the most important pre-wedding rituals in India.

The design seeks to build on the theme of the clasped hands by referencing the intricate Mehndi patterns through the treatment of the building skin. The tower is will be clad in fritted glazing that combines to form an architectural scale graphic on the exterior of the building. This will create a sense of transparency and depth to the building while at the same time helping to maintain the thermal qualities required to meet the building’s envelope design criteria.

It is proposed that the large scale canopies over the drop-off points area support an array of solar thermal collectors. Given the available surface area and annual sunlight conditions these have the potential to provide 12% of the energy required to heat the hot water for the hotel.

Mumbai Real Estate is of the Rich, by the Rich, for the Rich

Just two numbers tell us the tale of Mumbai’s real estate asset over the last seven or eight years.

One, between 2006 and 2011, the development of apartments which price  up to Rs 25 lakh dropped from 21 % of the total Mumbai Metro Area (MMR) region to merely nine %. In the same period, development of apartments that price more than Rs 2 crore improved from 9 % to 22 %, as seen in the data below. Mumbai is now out of reach of the middle-class.

Two, thanks to increasing real estate asset costs, lakhpatis of 2005 are now crorepatis in real estate asset terms. A flat charging Rs 27 lakh in Jan 2005 is now appreciated at Rs 1.04 crore in the MMR region. That is an admiration of 285 percent!  No wonder rich NRIs and traders see Mumbai real estate asset as a safe home for their cash.

As difficulties are dealt with today, Mumbai’s real estate asset is among the most expensive in the world but there is still no lack of customers at the higher end of the industry. The industry is as much motivated by dollar-rupee forex prices than household loan prices. This is obvious from the fact that international investment in the real estate industry hopped from Rs 171 crore in 2006, when FDI started out up to the real estate industry, to Rs 14,027 crore truly, according to data available with DIPP (Department of Commercial Policy and Promotion). The number, however,  has now come down to Rs 5,600 crore this year due to the international economic concerns. Clearly, the performance of the rich even in real estate asset  are interconnected with the currency markets growth of the 2000s.

Hot international inflows have made real estate expensive to residents. The wide influx of investment encouraged up land costs and the spinning costs usually encouraged actual customers away from the industry. Instead, traders with excess cash were roped in. Since an investor-driven industry is less clear and has a lot of complications, it started to entice a lot of black cash.

The result? Sky-rocketing real estate asset costs. Price and price of apartments in MMR improved at a improved yearly rate of growth of 22 % since the infusion of international capital!

“The increasing gap between the costs and cost is directing towards risky industry methods,” says Pankaj Kapoor MD at real estate asset talking to company Liases Foras.

Top 10 Most Expensive Cities in India

In spite of the top two positions, one stunning fact comes out from the present online blog writer interest in city positions.  And that is the Indian economic system is increasing extremely. This development has led middle and upper-middle class citizens to enjoy unmatched huge earnings and local energy.

India previously is house to a huge number of billionaires driving luxury cars and via the most recent in high-tech devices tools.

1) Delhi

Delhi, the capital of India, is the biggest metro area and the biggest commercial center with an approximated SDP of Rs.157,817 Crores. Delhi is a significant hub of telecommunications, construction, energy, health and property company. Delhi as well has India's biggest retail sectors.

2) Mumbai

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and the mainly populated city in India. It is as well the wealthiest city with maximum GDP. It is the second most expensive city for retirees. Since 2000, its property costs have increased quickly. It  is as well the 6th costly city for work place.. India's significant television and posting houses exist in Mumbai. It is as well the center of the Hindi movie industry, Bollywood.

3) Bangalore

Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka and third most costly city in India. It is recognized as an IT hub. Bangalore is moreover called the Garden City for its beautiful landscapes and recreational areas. Bangalore was rated as a 'Beta World City' and is frequently integrated on a list of top global cities. The city is measured  one of "The Next Decade's Fastest-Growing Cities" with  a 52,346 crore economic system.

4) Chennai

Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu and the fourth populated metro and costly city in India. It as well is a significant hub in Information technology, computers, automobile and medical sectors. The city is a center of business process freelancing (BPO) Services. It is house to 24 of the best-known organizations, each having a net worth of more than $1 billion.

5) Hyderabad

Hyderabad is the capital of Andhra Pradesh and the  6th populated metro city in India. Hyderabad is known as the City of Pearl jewelry. It is a significant center of  the IT market and is home to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations.  Hyderabad International airport is often rated as the fifth top airport.

6) Pune

Pune is the 8th biggest metro city in India and the second biggest city in Maharashtra. Pune is increasing in universities, prime offices and  in the glass and sugar sectors. The city is house to a solid automobile market and Symbiosis University of Pune. The city is as well working on civilizing its real estate features.

7) Kolkata

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal. It is the center of several professional and financial sectors. Kolkata moreover has its own stock market. It is the third most well-known metro city and is well known for its frequent trade union shut downs. Bata India, ITC Limited and Birla Corp. have globally head office here. The IT market has enhanced the city's development and popularity.

8) Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is the capital of Gujrat and the 7th biggest metro city in India. The legal capital of Gujrat is as well in Ahmedabad. IMRB newly rated Ahmedabad as the best mega city in which to live.  Ahmedabad is revealed to have a net GDP of  $59 billion. It is the biggest provider of jeans and is regarded as the  biggest exporter of jewellery in India.

9) Chandigarh

Chandigarh is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. It was the first organized city in India and is famous globally for its structure. The city has the greatest per household income in the country at Rs.99,262 at present costs. It also features of being the greenest city in India. Chandigarh statements to have an approximated GDP of  $2.2 billion.

10) Jaipur

Jaipur is the biggest city and capital of Rajasthan. It is generally known as the  'Pink City'' and is often rated as one of the best-planned places in India. The structure of Jaipur shows the royals of the  Rajputs. It is a metro city and as well a significant company hub. It is globally known for its trade company of gold, diamond and stone jewellery. The real estate company is growing speedily in Jaipur. It  is a well-known and favorite tourist location. In future years, experts estimate Jaipur will become a significant center of modern company.

An Affordable Home in Mumbai is a Dream

It’s one of Mumbai’s supreme ironies: people have jobs, sometimes even halfways-decent jobs, but most of them can never boast of a home.

With rising real estate prices, more and more people with perfectly respectable jobs cannot find affordable housing to buy or to rent. More than half the population lives in slums. But who is responsible for such a social imbalance? Is it just the builder who wants to maximise his profit? Is it the government, which fails to provide a single-window clearance  to speed up the approval process for builders? Or  is it the buyer who wants the maximum return on his investment?

In 2010, the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the state government inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing five lakh affordable homes in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Two years later, the homes remain a distant dream. Realtors cite their poor financial health, a slowdown in the economy, rising cost of construction material like cement and steel, restricted floor space index and project delays as the reasons for shying away from affordable housing in Mumbai.

Says Paras Gundecha, president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI-CREDAI), “The real estate sector has virtually come to a standstill due to the innumerable delays that developers encounter.” This delays the completion of projects, leaving developers with no option but to pass on 25 percent additional costs to the consumers, he added. Builders bank on speedy execution to control costs and keep prices low, and by delaying approvals regulators blunt  low-cost housing  initiatives.

In any case, affordable housing requires support from the government, given the high land cost. Without a proper policy or a regulator in place, the role of  state agencies in facilitating affordable housing is limited by the sheer pressure from the politician-builder nexus, as the case with Maharashta Housing and Development Authority, or Mhada, demonstrates.

According to a research paper by PH.D Scholar Sahil Gandhi published by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, only 5-6 percent of Mumbai’s population can afford a house in Greater Mumbai. Given the current property rates, income distribution and institutional lending rates, 70 percent of Mumbai’s housing demand can only be met if property is priced Rs 20-25 lakh, he argues. This wouldn’t even cover the construction cost for developers in a city where land prices have risen by 200-300 percent in just the past four years.

“The real value of ‘affordability’ is Rs 15 lakh. At this price, a developer will lose his shirt because he will have to make houses  in the outskirts to gain cost advantage,” says Sanjay Dutt, MD at real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield.

This, however, is the true reality of Mumbai. The aam admi has to live at least 60-90 km away from the city if he can even dream of owning a house.

The only solution is if government and state agencies take up the matter in their own hands and build sound infrastructure along with housing units to support sustainable living.

The Planning Commission has pegged the total shortage of dwelling units in urban India at  26.53 million with low-income households and the poor facing the maximum brunt. But the affordable model’ has been all but abandoned because there is a fundamental infrastructure and structural problem in Mumbai. The real shortage of land has been further exacerbated artificially by poorly conceived central, state and municipal regulations. “By excessively controlling construction in centrally  located areas and by making land recycling difficult, some  regulations tend to push urban development towards  the periphery,” says Ashutosh Limaye, head research, Jones Lang Laselle. ”Strict regulations, when not implemented correctly, lead to rampant  corruption as there are multiple stakeholders with large stakes in  real estate development.”

This was especially true in the National Textile Corporation mill deals in Mumbai in 2005: NTC sold its five mill land parcels at record rates to realty majors such as DLF, Indiabulls, Lodha and Kohinoor group triggering a ripple effect that struck at the very base of housing affordability. Given the prices at which mill land deals took place,  no project was viable, said Kapoor. “Some even  raked in a profit by getting the government to increase the FSI in specific cases. However they effectively jacked up property prices across Mumbai, which ultimately drove people to peripheral areas such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayander,” he added.

The problem that inhibits affordable housing cannot be tackled by developers alone. Unless the government fast-tracks sound, people-oriented policies and  engages citizens in discussions at various stages of the preparation of plans and guidelines, it cannot be solved. Secondly, “slum-related policies should focus on providing infrastructure to existing slums and implementing measures that restrict the densification of slums as well as the formation of new settlements,” said Gandhi in his report. This can only be done if Mhada takes the responsibility of at least  60-70 percent of the rehabilitation  and ensures low-income buyers are not squeezed  out by the better informed investor class.