CENTAURUS: (First seven star hotel and mall in Pakistan)

Introduction:

Centaurus is the seven star hotel and mall which will be the first seven start hotel in
Pakistan. It is designed according to the surrounding area of margalla hills and its
physical appearance shows a link with it. Centaurus has four towers in its plan, two
towers for residential apartments, one for corporate offices and third tower will be a
hotel. A group of world’s best companies are hired for the construction and consultancy
of this project e.g. atkin, hi-tech, geo science, BRE, haggler bailly. These companies are
considered the best companies in the world having successful project all over the world
as twin tower and burj-ul-arab.

Centaurus is designed especially while considering special features for being unique as
Centaurus is designed energy efficient, safe from earth quake, IP technology, advanced
building management system, Advance surveillance and security system and can resist
the effect of earth quake more than 2005.

Project Scope of services:

The followings are the project scope of services which are planned for this project:

• Due Diligence
• Design Management
• Value Engineering
• Construction Management
• Procurement Management
• Contract Administration
• Time Control
• Cost Control
• Construction Supervision

VISION:

The founder of the centaurs has following vision which he wants to be achieving by
designing, construction and establishing the Centaurus:

• World Class landmark

• Company Flag-ship
• Attractive
• Recognisable statement
• Sustainable
• Cost efficient
• State of the art
• High quality end MALL
• Blend with environment
 • Trend setter

Learning from this project:

In this project we have a wonderful experience to visit a unique project in Pakistan and
having a close look on this project while studying the project management. First of all we
gathered in the university according to pre-decided schedule of this visit to project of
Centaurus. As per schedule we reached at the site of Centaurus on time and management
welcomed us on the gate and provides us safety helmets, then they take us to the
basement for the presentation on this project. We have learned a lot from this
presentation which I want to discuss here:

First of all project managers introduce him and her co-workers and gave presentation on
the project. After that he gave the answers of question which were frequently asked by
the student of project management.

Q: what are the scope limitations which you have to face during this project?

Centaurus was basically designed 900 feet above initially and approved by the CDA but
later on civil affiliation and civil defense create hurdle for the Centaurus and rejected to
approve the initially designed structure. So management has to redesign its structure and
decreased the height of its hotel from 900 feet to 500 feet only. This changed the scope of
Centaurus

Q: Do you face any problem related to regulatory authorities?

Yes, we have face a lot of problems and one of them is disapproval of our planned
structure of hotel which was 900 feet but after the rejection or Civil affiliation and Civil
defense authorities we have to change the designed and structure of our hotel which result
us cost and delay in processing of our project

Q: How did you manage the time which was wasted by approval authorities?

A lot of time was wasted by approval authorities because of rejection of our planned
structure so we have to delay our work due to finalize the structure of approval of finalize
structure. To manage and cover the wasted time we issue tenders to different companies
and started work before the approval of those tenders. We tried to minimize the wastage
of time for approval of tenders

Q: From where you acquired your work force which is working on this project?

We have different types of work force that are working on this project. We have hired a
lot of consultancy firms which are considered world’s best consultancy firms and worked
in major project in many countries. We have also Chinese companies working on this
project and rest of our work force is local. We have also hired local contractors for
completion of this project.
Q: What factors you had in your mind while designing the Centaurus?

We have critically analyzed the surrounding area of the project place. This area is located
in the middle of Margalla hills so we have designed the shape of Centaurus according to
the hills which links the designed with the surrounding nature.

Q: what is the price of the land which you have purchased for Centaurus?

We have chosen the best place for this project which is the center of the Islamabad and
we have paid Rs. 6 Billion to CDA for purchasing the ideal location for Centaurus

Q: Do you have apartments and offices in Centaurus?

Yes, we have two towers on the left side which are specially designed for residential
apartments and one tower for the corporate office of business.

Q: Do you have any mall in Centaurus?

Yes, we have a mall with full luxuries which is located on the basement of the three
towers (residential and offices)

Q: Do you have helipad in your design?

Centaurus is a seven star hotel so we have a helipad on the top of the hotel as per
requirement of a seven star hotel

Q: did your cost affected due to crises in Pakistan?

In recent years, crises existed in all over the world so we have already judged the crises
of world’s economy so we had added reserves to handle this risk but due to flood and bad
governance of Pakistan, prices of raw material rise up to estimation so it affected our
estimates. So we are trying to mitigate these changes in our cost base line?

Q: which software you are using to plan and control the tasks?

We have a lot of software which we are using to plan, arrange, manage and control the
tasks which are running in our project. Most of software we have specially purchased as
per requirement of our project as smart track is the main software which we are using for
this project

Q: what international standard you are following in this project?

We have Design Deliverables as per American Institute of Architects (AIA). We are

handling this project according to the standard of project management institute of
America. We are also managing Time and Cost Management processes as per The
Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International and Value
Engineering as per SAVE Int.
Q: how you validate your work done?

We measure the following thing to validate our work:

• Cost Performance Index (CPI)
• Schedule Variance Index (SPI)
• Cost and Schedule Variance (CV/SV)
• Cost and Schedule Forecasting (CAC/TAC)
After the above calculation, we are able to know that how much work we have done as
per planned and earned value and how much we have cost on our actual work done. We
also measure the variance of our planned and earned value and know how much we have
variance and how we have to control it in future to complete project on time

Q: Do you have any risk register? How to respond the risk?

Yes, we have a risk register in which we have to importance of risk, effect on the project,
chances of happening of risks and measuring the risks exist in the project and we have set
criteria to recode, score and respond the risk.

Q: how much apartemnts and how many floors you have in Centaurus?

We have 420 apartments in two residential apartemnts having studio apartments and pent
apartemnts. We have 31 floors on each tower.

Q: Do you have any hurdle related to budget constraints?

We have a full planned project and we have considered all the risk factors related to the
project so we don’t have any problem regerding to approved budget. Our donners have
abundent resources so we don’t have any problem regarding to budget and financial

Q: how you are implementing project management in this project?

We are following the project management institute standards so we are following a lot of
procedures regarding to project management as we have designed gant chart, pert chart
and other charts to measure the performance and work done according to the planned
schedule.
Conclusion:

Centaurus is the a wonderful project in Pakistan. It is the first seven star hotel & mall in
the pakistan so it is a unique, complex and one of the large scale project in Pakistan.
Centaurus has to face a lot of problem regarding to the scope, time and budget cost line
but the management working on this project is very skilled so they are managing this
project very effectively. A lot of companies which are considered one of the best
companies in the world and having experience of world’s successful project in many
countries.

Centaurus is a unique project in the pakistan and havign skilled and expert labor force
working on them. They are managin this project under the many risk prevail in Pakistan
very effectively. They are following internaiton standards to complete this project and to
make this project successful. They are managing high level of qualtiy and hired world’s
expensive management and consultants.

We have learned a lot from this project as the student of project managemnt. It was a
good experience to have a close look to the international starndard project. This was a
wonderful chance for us to know how management is implementing the project
managemetn and its standard on the project actually.

So I am specially thankful to Sir Farid Zafar to arrange a wonderful visit to this project
and guide us to understand that how acutal project works under the project management.