ISLAMABAD: The owner of Centaurus Mall wants a favourable permission to convert the office tower into a five star hotel by deviating from its original approved design.

The mega mall has already violated its approved design besides several other irregularities as 32 storeys were constructed in respect of Block A and B against the approved 30 storeys, while in Block-C, 30 storeys were constructed against the approved 29 storeys.

Furthermore, an approved five star hotel is also yet to be constructed, which was actually an integral part of this project and delay in its construction is itself a violation of the terms of allotment.

Now the owner of the said mall wants to convert its Block C into a five star hotel, which was originally meant for offices only.

A well-placed source inside the Capital Development Authority (CDA) briefed: “One of the core reason behind the lease cancellation of Grand Hayat Hotel was the delay in the construction of a hotel building and after the said cancellation, the owner of Centaurus Mall was also in hot waters due to the non-construction of its hotel building.”

“The owner wants to take a legal cover by formally requesting the CDA to allow a five star hotel in block C originally meant for offices,” he added by considering the owners of Centaurus Mall beyond the limits of the civic body.

The CDA leased out 32,040 square yards to M/S Pak Gulf for Rs 6 billion for the construction of a hotel, shopping area and residential apartments. The firm completed the shopping mall and residential apartments but did not construct the five-star hotel.

The management of Centaurus had submitted revised drawings to the building control section of the CDA without A-I+A-II clearance from the Estate Management for internal changes along with a request to change its trade usage from office tower to hotel.

When contacted the Member Planning CDA, Asad Mehboob Kiani, confirmed the development and said: “The meeting of the design vetting committee is scheduled on Tuesday to discuss the matter, but nothing is finalised so far and any permission, if granted would be made in accordance with the rules and regulations.”

It was noticed in the past that the civic body was toothless while taking action against Centaurus Mall as compared to other skyscrapers besides its violation of a high magnitude.

“In the case of Centaurus, the civic authority, instead of taking practical steps is only content to issuing show cause notices as it first issued a notice then made a deal with the owner of the mall”, another officer of the authority commented.