#PROJECT: CITY OF ARABIA

[scorpion]

i second that!!

[Dubai-Lover]

Work launched on City of Arabia

Dubai

Work has started on the 20 million sq ft City of Arabia project, one of the leading private sector projects in the Middle East, following the official ground-breaking ceremony last month.

Located on a site close to the Emirates Road, the first phase of City of Arabia – which is the anchor project in Dubailand – is due for completion in 2008.
The City of Arabia – which is situated on Emirates Road next to the Global Village – will be a new suburb of Dubai with around 40,000 inhabitants. It will include the Mall of Arabia, the Restless Planet dinosaur theme-park; the Elite Towers, which consist of 34 high-rise buildings for mixed commercial and residential use; and the Wadi Walk, a series of low-rise apartments alongside a flowing waterway, served by small electric water-taxis.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ilyas Galadari, chairman of the Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group, the developer, commented: “The groundbreaking celebrates the beginning of a unique development for Dubai, offering a combination of retail, leisure, commercial and residential elements that will attract both local and international investment. The Restless Planet dinosaur theme attraction is already being compared with top theme parks in America and with an international team of experts guiding the project, is set to become an icon for Dubai that will be recognised around the globe.”
Middle East Foundations, which has won the piling contract, has started on boring the 13,000 piles that will form the foundations for the Mall of Arabia, one of the world’s largest malls and an important part of the City of Arabia.

[Krazy]

Two companies in race for City of Arabia monorail

Dubai: Malaysia's Mtrans and Canada's Bombardier are in the final leg of talks for an estimated Dh587 million contract for a 16-kilometre "automatic people mover" or mini monorail project at the City of Arabia, said a top official.

"Out of the five bidders, negotiations are going on with the two and we hope to make a decision soon," Anwar Sher, director of City of Arabia, said yesterday.

One of them is expected to be awarded the contract once technical and pricing details are agreed.

The monorail will have 14 stations in the development and will connect to the Blue Line of Dubai's Light Rail Transit project.

City of Arabia's development cost is likely to reach Dh22 billion, requiring Dh7.3 billion investment by developers Elyas and Mustafa Galadari Group.

Infrastructure bidders

Bids for the City Arabia's estimated Dh1 billion infra-structure package have been received and five companies are in the race.

"Request for proposals has gone out to five pre-qualified bidders. We hope to close the bid next month and award contracts by this summer. City of Arabia will be up and running by the middle of 2008," he said.

The developer has also awarded some contracts for a power and water recycling project for the 1.4 kilometre Wadi Walk lake and Restless Planet theme park, part of City of Arabia. Siemens has won the substation contract.

The project, which will house 28,000 people in 8,200 homes, is part of Dubailand a mega tourism project that is expected to attract Dh65 billion in total investment.

The project, which will house Mall of Arabia the world's largest shopping mall with 1,200 retail outlets is expected to attract 30 million people annually.

The enabling and piling contract worth over Dh100 million has been awarded to the Middle East Foundation.

"More than 52 per cent of the retail area has been rented out and another 20 per cent is under final negotiations with branded retailers," he said.

Its theme park, Restless Planet, will have four major rides, and may charge Dh150 for all the entertainment, good for four hours.

City of Arabia has placed orders for the rides and equipment, including 109 animotronics electronic dinosaurs and other pre-historic creatures.

Some dinosaurs, being made in Japan, will move and interact with visitors.

[Krazy]

what is animotronics????

[Dubai-Lover]

wow
a 16km monorail just for city of arabia

never expected it to be that long

obviously the project will be bigger than the renders suggest!

[scorpion]

Originally Posted by Krazy

what is animotronics????

the "technology" behind the moving animals at places like Disneyland, etc.

[scorpion]

yeah, 16km is INSANE.

[Face81]

Originally Posted by Dubai-Lover

wow
a 16km monorail just for city of arabia

never expected it to be that long

obviously the project will be bigger than the renders suggest!

and there are 8 train stations according to my sources and currently DubaiLand officials are in talks with CoA officials about extending their mono rail to cover ALL of DubaiLand and then link it up to Dubai Metro!

[dubaiflo]

16km is a lot. but good, this is necessary.

Originally Posted by scorpion

the "technology" behind the moving animals at places like Disneyland, etc.

in this case, the dinosaurs.

[Krazy]

how realistic is the effect?

[dubaiflo]

well the renders and videos show it pretty amazing and they want it with never seen effects.
the people who did jurassic park are working on it.

[dazz]

Video of animatronics dinosaur!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...q=Animatronics

[dazz]

Originally Posted by Krazy

Some dinosaurs, being made in Japan, will move and interact with visitors.

Made in Japan? "Interact" with visitors?

sounds like GODZILLA!

[DUBAI]

monorail

why couldnt they just have used light rail???

that way all metro systems would be interconectable, making future expansion easier.

maybe the govt shoul legislate to this effect.

[dubaiflo]

they are interconectable like that as well, you have to switch trains but they could include one station.

where is the problem.. you have to switch lines everywhere.

[Face81]

Originally Posted by dubaiflo

they are interconectable like that as well, you have to switch trains but they could include one station.

where is the problem.. you have to switch lines everywhere.

it will be connected in the future. I am pretty sure.

And yes, they are interconnectable.

[THE DUBAI GUYS]

didnt someone put something in this thread that dubailand could end up having a railway just as long as the dubai metro...lol!

[DUBAI]

Originally Posted by dubaiflo

they are interconectable like that as well, you have to switch trains but they could include one station.

where is the problem.. you have to switch lines everywhere.

No i mean elsewhere in the world metro trains are all the same. i.e. a red train can go down the green line to reach the depot e.t.c....

this is especialy usefull if they wanted to expand the system, merging lines e.t.c.

big opertunity lost... dubai not planning ahead...as usual.

[dubaiflo]

now nick, that is not true.
where is the matter, if dubailand, seen as a huge themepark, gets its own monorail, then there is not anything bad in this.

there is no need for merging lines or change the trains etc...

[Dubai-Lover]

dubailand should get it's own metro, which should only be indirectly connected to the dubai metro

there should be 2 stations on both ends of dubailand, one at city of arabia, the other one near sports city, these 2 have to be connected to the dubai metro

switching trains is a must, otherwise people traveling down to jebel ali would have to go all the way through dubailand!

keep the separate, but with 2 interconnections