Central Asia-Persian Gulf transit corridor deal signed

Iran, Turkmenistan, Oman, Qatar and Uzbekistan inked an agreement to establish a Central Asia-Persian Gulf transit and transport corridor here on Monday.

Foreign ministers of the mentioned countries signed the five-sided agreement, the Mehr News Agency reported.

“I'm sure this agreement will have favorable and constructive results for regional nations, and will offer the five nations useful and ideal opportunities in launching international transit services,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said.

He noted that Central Asian countries, especially Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have played a key role in the economic development of the regional nations, Press TV reported.

“These countries are among major producers of minerals as well as oil and gas in the region and the world, which makes their transit status and significance all the more important,” he added.

Iran's foreign minister further emphasized closer cooperation among the Persian Gulf countries, namely Qatar and Oman, to ease the transit of commodities in the region.

He expressed hope with the North-South transit corridor, which connects the Persian Gulf and Central Asia becoming operational, other countries would join in as well.

Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan to build railroad

Salehi also said that the Islamic Republic is cooperating with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to build a railroad linking the three countries, Press TV reported.

Salehi made the remarks in a press conference upon his arrival in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, where he was officially welcomed by his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov.

The Iranian minister noted that the railroad would boost the trade transactions among the three sides, expressing hope for closer ties in political, economic and cultural spheres.

The initial agreement on the construction of the railway was signed between presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in the city of Turkmenbashi in April 2007 and Iran joined the deal in September 2007.

The 1,000-kilometer railroad will shorten more than 600 kilometers of route for transporting goods from the Central Asia to the Persian Gulf, and will become one of the important international transportation links between China and Europe.

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Doha to host tall building summit

Doha will host a key conference on tall buildings in June as Qatar prepares to build the necessary accommodation facilities for the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar has allocated $12.4 billion for the construction of accommodation to cater for the influx of international professionals drafted in to prepare Doha for the World Cup.

In addition, approximately 80,000 hotel rooms will be required for the 1.4 million visitors expected to descend on Doha during the four-week event.

As such, an estimated 800 towers (more than 20 storeys) of residential apartments, commercial premises, hotel accommodation and mixed-use structures are planned for completion in Doha over the next 10 years to provide the necessary high-density accommodation and commercial real estate, principally in the West Bay area, said a report.

In order to develop tower projects through the planning and consultation processes, the complexities of designing, constructing and operating tall buildings must first be addressed. A lack of stakeholder collaboration from the start of the development could result in an increased risk of technical faults and could compromise the integrity of the final delivery, experts said.

The wind, in particular, can compromise fundamental design aspects of super tall structures such as shape, height, suitability for occupancy and the amount of 'useable' space; and can create undesirable wind tunnels at ground level, they said.

Alf Seeling, design director at Woods Bagot, will review best practices methods to mitigate against the effect of the wind at the Tall Buildings Middle East summit.

Transforming facades for super tall towers to withstand tremendous wind forces and increase sustainability is also a critical element of the building concept and Marshall Strabala, chief architect at 2DEFINE Architecture, will discus the benefits of the innovative Shanghai Tower double skin facade design.

Alf and Marshall will be joined by Omar Al-Farouk Al-Damluji, structural design manager at Parsons; and Tony Marshallsay, chief mechanical engineer and Rukn Eldeen Mohammed, senior projects manager at Omrania and Associates; to review best practice solutions for overcoming the shared technical challenges of building tall.

In partnership with Qatar Society on Engineers, Middle East Facilities Management Association (MEFMA) and Institute of Structural Engineers, IQPC Middle East will be hosting this summit at the Oryx Rotana in Qatar between June 19 - 22 in order to bring together stakeholders within local and international tall building projects.

Key confirmed speakers include representatives from Barwa, Tameer Holdings, Gensler, RMJM and Arup. A full line-up of attending experts and senior speakers plus the agenda are available at http://www.tallbuildingsme.com

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