Antilia (building)

Antilia
File:Antilia.JPG Antilia as seen from Balughat Road
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Private residence
Location	Altamount Road, off Pedder Road, South Mumbai
Coordinates
Completed	2010
Opening	5 February
Cost	Officially $1 billion
Owner	Mukesh Ambani
Height
Technical details
Floor count	27
Floor area	4,500 m2 (48,000 sq ft) of living space
Lifts/elevators	10
Design and construction
Architect	Perkins + Will
Structural engineer	Sterling Engineering Consultancy Services (Mumbai)
Main contractor	Leighton Holdings

Antilia is a private home in South Mumbai. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and includes a staff of 600 to maintain the residence. As of November 2014, it is deemed to be the world's second most expensive residential property, after Buckingham Palace, which is designated as a governmental property. It is thus the world's most expensive private residential property.

Etymology

Antilia is named after a mythical island of the same name in the Atlantic Ocean.

Construction

Antilia as seen from Altamount Road

Antilia was designed by Chicago-based architects Perkins and Will, with the Australian-based construction company Leighton Holdings taking charge of its construction. The home has 27 floors with extra-high ceilings. (Other buildings of equivalent height may have as many as 60 floors.) The home was also designed to survive an 8-Richter scale earthquake.

Controversies

In 2005, this property was purchased by a Mukesh Ambani-controlled entity, Muffin-Antilia Commercial Private Limited from the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Trust, in direct contravention of § 51 of the Wakf Act.

The land had been previously owned by the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Yateemkhana (an orphanage). This charitable institution had sold the land allocated for the purpose of education of underprivileged Khoja children to Antilia Commercial Private Limited in July 2002 for ₹210.5 million (US$3.1 million). The prevailing market value of the land at the time was at least ₹1.5 billion (US$22 million).

The Waqf minister Nawab Malik opposed this land sale, as did the revenue department of the Government of Maharashtra. Thus a stay order was issued on the sale of the land. The Waqf board also initially opposed the deal and filed a PIL in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the trust. The Supreme Court, while dismissing the petition, asked the Waqf board to approach the Bombay High Court. However, the stay on the deal was subsequently vacated after the Waqf board withdrew its objection on receiving an amount of ₹1.6 million (US$24,000) from Antilia Commercial Pvt Ltd, and it issued a No Objection Certificate.

In 2007 the Allahabad government said the structure is illegal because the land's owner, the Waqf Board, had no right to sell it, as Waqf property can neither be sold nor transferred. Ambani then obtained a No Objection Certificate from the Waqf Board after paying ₹ 1.6 million and began construction. In June 2011, the Union government asked the Maharashtra government to consider referring the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

In regards to the three helipads, the Indian Navy said it will not allow the construction of helipads on Mumbai buildings, while the Environment Ministry, following a representation from Awaaz Foundation, said the helipads violate local noise laws. Issues have also been raised with regards to the construction of an illegal car park.

In 2011 it was reported that Ambani had yet to move in to the home, despite its completion, for fear of "bad luck". According to Basannt R. Rasiwasia, an expert in Vastu shastra, claims the home does not conform to Vastu requirements. However, Ambani later confirmed that his family had been living there since about September 2011.

Cost and valuation

The Indian media have frequently reported that Antilia is the world's most expensive home, costing between US$1 and 3 billion. Thomas Johnson, director of marketing at architecture firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (consulted by Reliance during the design of the building's floor plan) told Forbes magazine the residence cost nearly $2 billion.

In June 2008, the The New York Times printed that it would cost $50–$70 million to build.But it cost nearly $1billion with combined rates of land it was build on.

Public reception

It's a stupendous show of wealth, it's kind of positioning business tycoons as the new maharajah of India.

Hamish McDonald, author of Ambani & Sons: A History of the Business

Some Indians are proud of the "ostentatious house", while others see it as "shameful in a nation where many children go hungry". Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, opined that "such wealth can be inconceivable" not only in Mumbai, "home to some of the Asia's worst slums", but also in a nation with 42 percent of the world's underweight children younger than five.

Tata Group former chairman Ratan Tata said Antilia is an example of rich Indians' lack of empathy for the poor. Tata also said: "The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and [asking] can he make a difference. If he is not, then it's sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have."

Author activist and trained architect Arundhati Roy wondered if by calling their tower Antilia, the "Ambanis hope to sever their links to the poverty and squalor of their homeland and raise a new civilisation?"

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Mumbai

External links

• Most Expensive Home in the World has 27 Floors and Slum Views - slideshow by the LA Times
• Antilia is the world’s most expensive house for $1 billion - Luxurylaunches
• It's sad Mukesh Ambani lives in such opulence: Ratan Tata