London: A 180-m skyscraper with a daring new design has been given the go ahead by the City of London.

The 41-storey glass and aluminium building is designed by Norman Foster.

The building will be the headquarters of the Swiss Re insurance group. The land will be sold by Kvaerner to Swiss Re for 122 million euros ($115.1 million) and Swiss Re will then sign a contract with Kvaerner for the construction of the building.

Auckland tower plan canned

Auckland: The largest new skyscraper planned for the New Zealand capital Auckland has been canned.

Trans Tasman Properties put on hold its plans to build a 30-storey building worth $100 million blaming a softening in the Auckland office-leasing market for its decision.

The tower had not been axed, but the time was just not right for such a large project, the company said.

Plans for new Danube bridge

Sofia: Three to five West European companies will take part in the construction of the second bridge over the Bulgarian-Romanian sector of the Danube, at Vidin-Calafat. The rest will be Bulgarian partners, the special coordinator for the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Bodo Hombach said.

"Western Europe is interested in creating as many jobs as possible in Southeastern Europe. Western partners are clearly interested in working with more local partners," Hombach said.

7 power projects for Kashmir

New Delhi: India's state-run National Hydrolectric Power Corporation (NHPC) will build seven hydroelectric power stations aggregating 2,798 MW of electricity in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"These projects will be executed in phases and completed in a period of about 10 years," the firm said.

1,000 km gas pipeline planned

Bangalore: The Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) will build a 1,000 km pipeline network linking Kochi, which will receive gas from Qatar, to Kasargod in north Kerala and then to Mangalore, Hassan, Mysore and Bangalore in the Karnataka state. This will initially provide 5 million cu m of gas per day and eventually go up to nearly 20 million cu m.

Seoul to get 10,000-room complex

Seoul: A tourist accommodation complex with 10,000 rooms will be built on the outskirts of the South Korean capital Seoul. The complex aims at tiding over the ever-worsening situation of accommodating foreign tourists.