Mukesh Ambani builds world's first billion-dollar home in Mumbai - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The richest man in India and the fourth richest in the world, Mukesh Ambani, has built world's first billion-dollar home in Mumbai, India. Ambani is having a few friends round to celebrate moving into his new Mumbai pad. But as the home has 27 storeys, soars to 173 metres and is worth an estimated 630m pounds, it will be a housewarming like no other. The building - named Antilia, after a mythical island - will be home to Ambani, his wife and their three children. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one swimming pool, a ballroom, guestrooms, a variety of lounges and a 50-seater cinema, reports the Guardian. There are three helicopter pads on the roof and a space for 160 vehicles on the lower floors. Also the building has nine lifts to take the guests from the lobby to upper levels, where the festivities will take place. On the top floors, with a sweeping view of the city and out over the Arabian Sea , are quarters for the 53-year-old tycoon and his family. Overall, there is reported to be 37,000 sq metres of space, more than the Palace of Versailles . To keep things running smoothly, there is a staff of 600. It cost an estimated 44m pounds to build but because of Mumbai's astronomic land and property prices, will be worth about 15 times that amount - 630m pounds. An asymmetric stack of glass, steel and tiles with a four-storey hanging garden, Ambani's new home has been built, reports say, with local materials as far as possible. According to Forbes magazine, the plants save energy by absorbing sunlight, making it easier to keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter. The glass and gold chandeliers are hanging from the ballroom ceiling. Interior design of Antilia was overseen by an American firm and is described as "Asian contemporary". It has apparently been influenced by vaastu, an Indian tradition close to feng shui, which supposedly allows positive energies to move through the building.