Dubai Plans To Build A US$95b City

Source : The Business Times, October 7, 2008

Mixed use Jumeirah Gardens will be built over 12 years

(DUBAI) A Dubai government firm yesterday announced it will build a 'new city' in the booming Gulf emirate at a projected cost of US$95 billion, shrugging off the global financial turmoil.

A gleaming city within a city: Jumeirah Gardens will comprise business, residential and leisure facilities linked by a transportation network and include some of the city's biggest towers. It also will have a large canal running through the development.

The mixed use Jumeirah Gardens development will be 'an integrated city within a city', to be built over 12 years, Meraas Development said at the opening of Cityscape 2008, a four-day international real estate exhibition.

The announcement came one day after Dubai developers Nakheel said it planned to build a tower which could stand one kilometre tall.

Jumeirah Gardens will stretch north of Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai's main thoroughfare linking it to the oil-rich emirate and UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, 150 kilometres to the south.

Meraas Development said that Jumeirah Gardens will comprise business, residential and leisure facilities linked by a transportation network and including some of the city's biggest towers, and with a large canal running through the development.

The announcement came at the opening of the Cityscape exhibition, an annual feature on the property calendar of Dubai, a regional business and tourism hub which is in the midst of a construction frenzy and aims to rival financial centres like London and New York.

But Dubai has not been spared the turmoil on world markets.

Dubai Financial Market dropped 7.6 per cent yesterday to its lowest level in more than 18 months.

The market has lost around 14 per cent in the past two days amid the world financial crisis. -- AFP