The 1050m high, 185-storey Azerbaijan Tower that is being developed as the world’s tallest building in Baku, the capital of the oil-rich country in the Caspian Sea, is expected to be ready by 2025 according to Ibrahim Ibrahimov, head of Avesta, the real estate developer of the project.

The tower is part of the $100bn Khazar Island masterplan which will comprise 41 man-made islands connected by 150 bridges off the shores of Baku. It will be a mix of hotels and apartment buildings. Construction would start in late 2013.

Work on the infrastructure — a road system which will include a Formula-1 quality race track — has just begun. The first stage of the project is slated for completion by 2016. Developers expect the tower and complex to be fully complete by 2025.

The tower will be 27% taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, at present the world’s tallest building, and will also edge ahead of Jeddah’s Kingdom Tower, which at a height of 1000m will be the world’s tallest building when it is completed in 2017.