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Dubai launches giant palm tree resort
island
Dubai
has unveiled plans for a palm tree-shaped
resort island on land reclaimed from
the sea that will add 120 kilometres
of sandy beaches and be visible from
the moon.
"Palm
Island" will include 2,000 villas,
up to 40 luxury hotels, shopping complexes,
cinemas and the Middle East's first
marine park, said Sultan bin Sulayem,
chairman of Dubai Palm Developers.
The
island will be built in the shape
of 17 huge fronds surrounded by 12
kilometres (7.5 miles) of protective
barrier reefs, extending five kilometres
(three miles) into the sea south of
Dubai city.
"The
project has taken four years of methodical
planning and exhaustive feasibility
studies to ensure that the islands
can be built without disrupting the
environment," Sulayem said.
They
will be accessible by 300-metre (990-feet)
bridges from the mainland or boat
to two marinas, while the main causeway
will also have a monorail system.
The
project will be built on 80 million
cubic metres (2.8 billion cubic feet)
of land dredged from the approach
channel to the emirate's Jebel Ali
port, an operation that will deepen
the channel to 17 metres (56 feet).
Khalid
bin Sulayem, head of Dubai's tourism
board, said the project would elevate
Dubai "from regional players
to leaders in tourism development
who focus on modernising and expanding
tourism infrastructure to attract
more tourists."
Property
on the islands, expected to take up
to four years to complete, will be
for sale to foreigners as well as
Emiratis. Sulayem did not put on a
figure on the project cost.
A
consultant with Palm Developers told
AFP at Dubai's Arabian Travel Market
that the contract for the project
was expected to be awarded next week
and construction take up to five years.
With its oil resources running out,
Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), has launched a multi-billion
dollar tourism drive in an effort
to establish itself as the Gulf's
leisure hub.
The
local Abdullah al-Futtaim Group last
month launched Dubai Festival City,
a project to develop a four-kilometre-long
(2.5-mile-long) stretch of the emirate's
southern creekside at a cost of 1.6
billion dollars.
And a 10-billion dollar project to
build a new city called Dubai Marina
is already well underway. It is to
house 100,000 people around a huge
water basin within a decade.
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