Vikas Minar (The Tower of Progress) is a 23-storey building in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

that houses offices of the Delhi Development Authority. Built in 1976, it was designed by Habib Rahman and was at completion the first building in Delhi to surpass the

Qutb Minar The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO Worl ...

in height.

Design and construction

Vikas Minar was designed by Habib Rahman, the then Chief Architect of the Central Public Works Department, as a point-block tower and construction lasted from 1969 to 1976. Actual construction was undertaken by the Ansal Group at a cost of 85 lakhs. At 82 meters in height, it was the tallest building in Delhi and the first to surpass the Qutb Minar and became a

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

in Delhi. With its exposed beams and

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s, the building, which is devoid of

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". Mor ...

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

s or any decorative elements, is an important example of Modernist architecture in Delhi although its structure and design have been criticized as being visually unappealing and grossly energy inefficient.

References

{{coord missing, Delhi Delhi Indian architecture by state or union territory Office buildings in India