After a nine-month delay, the tallest building in the world — the 818-metre Burj Tower in Dubai — will open in January 2010 to mark the fourth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice-President and Prime Minister, taking over as Ruler of Dubai.

Burj Dubai is an iconic building as an engineering marvel, with 57 elevators that travel at speeds upto 60 metres per second. Engineers are considering lowering speeds since travellers ears pop at least twice on the way up. At higher levels, the building shifts indiscernibly, by over 6 inches.

Burj Dubai is a mixed use building with residential, commercial and retail space. Most of its lower floors are dedicated to a 175-room Armani hotel, the first for the designer, as well as 144 apartments with designer home furnishings.

There are more than 800 apartments in the building. There is an observation deck on level 124. The views of the Dubai skyline are absolutely breathtaking from here with one side looking on to The World — the famous man-made islands where celebrities like David and Victoria Beckham have invested. The other side overlooks the other iconic building of Dubai, the Burj Al Arab. A nightclub will open 20 floors higher. There are a total of 138 floors.

Currently more than 15,000 workers are employed here, more than half of them Indian. Designed by a Chicago-based architecture firm SOM, Burj Dubai is conceptualised on a desert flower and is estimated to have cost the promoters, Emaar Properties $1.1 billion.

... contd.