As reported by emirates247.com, non-resident Indians in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries are contributing to build what is claimed to be India's biggest mosque, Share Mubarak Masjid, which will come up in the outskirts of Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala, home to a large number of NRIs living in the UAE. Dr MA Hakkim Azhari Kanthapuram, joint secretary of Markazu Ssaquafathi Ssunniyya of Calicut (a leading religious and charitable institution in India, helping the destitute Muslims and orphans in their education and overall socio-cultural development), during his visit to the UAE said, that about one million members of the organisation, many of them living in the UAE, each contributed US$ 22 to build the largest Indian mosque in a proposed Knowledge City, which is located on the outskirts of Calicut. To be built at a cost of US$ 8.8 million, the mosque will have a built-up area of 23 thousand square meters, accommodating up to 30 thousand worshippers. There will be a library for Islamic research and a conference hall where both Muslims and non-Muslims can come in pursuit of knowledge. The mosque will also be surrounded by Moghul-style garden and landscaping. The entire township would cost US$ 265 million. According to article, in Knowledge City will be professional engineering and medical colleges, a multidisciplinary hospital and healthcare city, a shopping mall, star hotels and convention center. The City layout has been finalised and urban planning is going on. Within the next six months, construction work will start. Currently, the biggest Indian mosque is Delhi's Jamia Masjid, built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Jamia Masjid is built with red sandstone and white marble. About 25 thousand people can pray here at a time.

As reported by constructionweekonline.com, Taiwan's Taipei 101 has become the tallest building in the world to receive LEED Platinum status, the top level in the green building rating system. Previously the world's tallest building at 509 meters, Taipei 101 is now the second tallest building in the world after the 828-meter Burj Khalifa. The tower was retrofitted with green technology and processes to achieve LEED EBOM, the accreditation for existing buildings. The retrofit was carried out through a partnership between electronics giant Siemens, interior designers Steven Leach Associates and Eco Tech International. According to another source focustaiwan.tw, Taipei 101's certification has set three records: The tallest green building (509 meters), the largest green building (about 150 thousand square meters), and the highest-use green building (90 tenants). The building has achieved annual savings of 14.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity- equivalent to US$ 1.24 million, or an 18 percent energy-saving, over three years. The design specification for the CO2 (carbon dioxide) level in Taipei 101 is 600 parts per million, tenants of Taipei 101 are able to enjoy fresher air in the building because of the lower CO2 level. Recall that the Taipei Financial Center Corporation announced plans on 2009 November to make Taipei 101 "the world's tallest green building" by summer 2011 as measured by LEED standards ( Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts).

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has given the go ahead for the construction of the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah by signing a US$ 1.2 billion contract with Bin Laden Group on August 2. As reported by ctbuh.org, at over thousand meters and a total construction area of 530 thousand square meters, Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million square meter site in north Jeddah. The tower's height will be at least 172 meters taller than the world's current tallest building, Dubai's 828 meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith. Kingdom Tower will feature a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, luxury condominiums and the world's highest observatory. Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently. Foundation drawings are complete and the piling for the tower is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately US$ 1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be US$ 20 billion. AS+GG is leading an interdisciplinary design team. The great height of Kingdom Tower necessitates one of the world's most sophisticated elevator systems. The Kingdom Tower complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions. Another unique feature of the design is a sky terrace, roughly 30 meters in diameter, at level 157. It is an outdoor amenity space intended for use by the penthouse floor. AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 230 thousand square meters Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall, high-quality outdoor spaces and other amenities. The Waterfront District provides a cohesive and pedestrian-friendly setting for Kingdom Tower while creating a pleasant neighborhood experience along the Kingdom City lakefront.

Construction on the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA) has started in the city Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India, reported artmediaagency.com. Unlike New Delhi and Mumbai, the city of Kolkata has no modern art museum, despite its traditional status as a center of art and culture. That is about to change - and in a big way - as the city prepares to build the largest museum of modern art in Asia, to be completed in 2015. According to business-standard.com, Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has designed the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, which will cost US$ 90.5 million to build and, at over 70 thousand square meters. Located in New Town, Rajarhat, in east Kolkata, the nine-story institution will feature 44 galleries, an auditorium, a library, and an amphitheater with a capacity for 1.500 people. The institution will build a permanent collection of both Asian and Western art. It will also include an academic wing and studios for visiting artists. Stores and restaurants will be developed alongside the museum. The museum is funded through a private-public partnership, with the West Bengal government providing US$ 30.2 million and the central government contributing US$ 33.1 million. The remaining funds will be raised from the private sector.

As reported by chinadaily.com, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, spanning Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao in East China's Shandong province, opened to traffic last week. The 41.58 kilometer, eight-lane Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay bridge, connecting the urban district of the city to its Huangdao district, cost US$ 2.3 billion. Construction started in May 2007. The bridge will shorten the route between the two centers by 30 kilometer, cutting travel time from more than 40 minutes to about 20 minutes. The bridge was built in four years, with several world records and national prizes achieved. Before that, it took more than 17 years for the authorities and experts to finish the exploration, planning, design and bidding for the project. According to telegraph.co.uk, the bridge is supported by more than 5,200 columns and was designed by the Shandong Gausu Group. The bridge is expected to carry over 30,000 cars a day. A staggering 450,000 tons of steel was used in its construction - enough for almost 65 Eiffel Towers - and 2.3 million cubic meters of concrete, equivalent to filling 3,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Chinese officials said that the bridge will be strong enough to withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake, typhoons or the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel. Previously, the longest cross-sea bridge in the world was the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway built in Louisiana back in the 1950s. China is already home to seven of the world's 10 longest bridges, including the world's lengthiest, the 163 kilometer Danyang-Kunshan rail bridge, which runs over land and water near Shanghai. And with Beijing pumping billions into boosting China's infrastructure, the Qingdao Bridge will not be the world's longest sea bridge for very long. In December 2009, work started on a 49.6 kilometer bridge that will link Zhuhai in southern Guangdong Province, China's manufacturing heartland, with the financial centre of Hong Kong. The project is expected to be completed in 2016.