Workers level ground at the construction site for Shanghai Center, the city's planned new skyscraper. Located in Lujiazui, Pudong, the building is expected to soar to 580 meters, dwarfing the 421-meter Jin Mao Tower and the 492-meter Shanghai World Financial Center in its neighborhood.(Photo source: Shanghai Daily) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Feb. 18 -- A project to build the tallest building in Shanghai is likely to break ground within the year and be topped off in 2010, dwarfing both the 492-meter-tall Shanghai World Financial Center and the 421-meter-tall Jin Mao Tower.

    The project has been endorsed by the city reform and development commission, according to a recent posting at the municipal government Website.

    A project company with a registered capital of 5.4 billion yuan (US$752 million) was approved by the city industrial and commercial administration at the end of last year, an insider said.

    Documents from the administration showed the company is 45 percent owned by the Shanghai Chengtou Corp, a municipal government-backed conglomerate investing in city-infrastructure construction; 51 percent owned by the Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone Development Co Ltd; and four percent owned by the Shanghai Construction Group, one of the country's largest construction contractors.