A contract for the demolition of the top three floors of the LDA Plaza was given to MAAKSON on Friday. A public notice seeking tenders for the demolition had been issued on May 29.
LDA officials say the demolition would take place on June 10 or June 11. MAAKSON has been awarded Rs105 million and given 60 days to complete the job.
LDA officials said the decision whether or not to demolish the fifth and sixth floors would be taken later. They said the frame of the top three floors had lost its strength during the recent fire. If the fifth and sixth floors were found to have been similarly damaged, they said, those would also be demolished. They said engineers would run tests to check the stability of the structure after the demolition of the ninth floor.
Israr Saeed, the Urban Development Wing chief engineer at the Traffic Engineering Transport Planning Agency (TEPA), told The Express Tribune that it was too early to predict the fate of fifth or sixth floor.
Saeed said the decision regarding the reconstruction of the top three floors would come later.
He said reconstruction of the top three floors would cost Rs725 million. The cost would rise to nearly Rs850 million if the fifth and the sixth floors were also demolished.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2013.