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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. | 
