Tokyo: Sumida Tower - 610m (Approved)

Short reign for world's tallest building: Tokyo tower to be completed in 2009 Times of London 18 March 2006 TOKYO - The world's tallest building will get the go-ahead next week, but the 610-metre-high (2,100-foot) Sumida Tower will hold the lofty title for only a few weeks. The shining steel structure will soar above the Asakusa tourist district of central Tokyo after approval is granted by the city authorities. But even if construction of the tower were to start Sunday, it would enjoy only a brief reign at the top of the world: its projected completion date in 2009 is very close to that of the Burj Dubai, which will be at least 80 metres taller. The Japanese tower, laden with the satellite dishes and transmitters of six TV stations, will retain, for the time being, the crown of "world's tallest communications tower." It will surpass the CN Tower in Toronto by 57 metres. Regional jealousy has played a central role in plans for the tower itself. Tokyo, conscious of its Asian rivals such as Taipei and Kuala Lumpur with far taller skyscrapers, has been growing increasingly anxious to get its Sumida Tower scheme underway and re-establish Japan's reputation as a country of spectacular engineering projects. But a long and bitter feud between rival districts along the city's famous Sumida river vying to host the tower has delayed a final decision. Bidders in the Taito and Saitama districts spent much of their energies trying to persuade the panel of business leaders and professors that the other's location is more earthquake-prone. The tower's function as a communications hub means that its destruction would cause extreme chaos. Next week the consortium of six television companies behind the project will hand victory to Taito. The area is close to the Sensoji Temple, the Asahi Beer Hall and other popular Tokyo tourist attractions. It is, say the judges, more likely to attract fee-paying visitors in Taito than it would in Saitama. The main company behind the project is Tobu Railway, which expects to shoulder most of the approximately 50 billion yen ($500 million Cdn) in construction costs.>