BEST INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST 2010 - DUBAI AND DOHA

[dubaiflo]

By 2010 the cities with the best infrastructure will be in the Middle East

Global travelers arriving in Doha and Dubai in 2010 are going to be impressed by the most modern physical infrastructure of any city in the world. Not far behind will be Abu Dhabi and the King Abdullah Economic City rising from amid a sea of tower cranes.

Qatar: 2 hours, 22 minutes ago


Today the most impressive cities for physical infrastructure are places like Hong Kong and Singapore. But these are the relics of booms now past, while Doha and Dubai are the boom cities of our time, creating infrastructure that will be a legacy for future generations.

For its own physical infrastructure is one of the best investments a society can ever make! Take the Victorians in England whose monuments still serve visitors to London, or the roaring 20s and depressed 30s architecture of New York.

By 2010 the crown for best infrastructure will pass to Doha and Dubai. There will be magnificent, world-leading airports with fleets of A380s to cross the globe, assuming Airbus has got its act together by then.

There will be elegant highways and newly completed Metro systems to convey travelers into the cities. The Dubai Festival City will greet visitors by The Creek, the first of the series of new Dubai mega malls.

Dazzling Dubai
Newly completed office complexes will abound. The Dubai International Financial Centre with its 35,000 car parking spaces and world-class skyscrapers. The neighboring Dubai Downtown with the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai. And the adjacent Business Bay with its dazzling office towers.

Up the multi-lane Sheikh Zayed highway the lights of the Dubai Marina and Dubai Tecom free zone will beckon. Here a forest of two hundred towers will mark the epicentre of New Dubai with villa compounds disappearing back into the desert and the massive new Dubailand theme park.

New hotels along the Jumeirah Beach will be home to many tourists. And stretching out into the calm Persian Gulf will be the two Palm islands - huge manmade islands alive with apartments, villas and massive hotels.

Dynamic Doha
In Doha the impression will be very similar: An architecturally distinguished airport, numerous new office and residential towers, the beautiful Pearl-Qatar manmade island development and top-quality shopping and hotel facilities.

This is what will remain from the oil boom of the previous decade: the infrastructure for the next ten, twenty and more years. Indeed, these will be the most modern cities in the world with the latest physical infrastructure to service the needs of business and commerce.

If the cost equation is right and the tax advantages remain, then it is a no-brainer to predict where business and finance will choose to locate in the Middle East. Indeed, there will be many more multinationals that choose to base their regional operations in these cities and possibly some global operations too.

Perhaps that is why the current residents of Doha and Dubai bare with the traffic chaos and daily inconvenience of the construction process. For by 2010 the cities with the best infrastructure in the world will be in the Middle East.

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quite interesting. maybe slightly over ambitious?

[crazyeight]

Over ambitious? possibly, but it's optimistic, and i like that.

[KB]

dunno about 2010, but in May i passed by doha.. one of the worst airports i have ever seen...though i think there was some construction going on.

the city looked OK from the skies, though. but for heavens sake, they should do something about the airport.

[malec]

only if the metro is up and running and not late

[Krazy]

definitely over optimistic... u cant build the world's best infrastructure over night.. there's going to be a lot of new problems that will come up in the years to come that dubai will have to address and it will take some time to stabilize

[guy_in_dubai]

i think the problems that krazy mentioned abt infrastructure are actually happening now and i think dubais addressing them with all the stuff the rta has planned

[DG]

why not?, i am 100% with the article beliefs

[smussuw]

I really dont think that Qatar would have a the best infrastructure any time soon

[SpaceScraper]

Best infrastructure. Hmmm. In the 21st century that award will go to the cities that matched their infrastructure with their population. Washington DC has a metro and roads that are 12 lanes wide but they have not kept up with a fast growing population. Average commute time to work is 32 minutes - second highest in the United States.

Also, lets not forget that infrastructure includes water, sewer, telecom and electricity grid. Tell me when Dubai has telecom fiber to to all its homes and no traffic jams. Then I think it deserves the best infrastructure award.

[Krazy]

Originally Posted by guy_in_dubai

i think the problems that krazy mentioned abt infrastructure are actually happening now and i think dubais addressing them with all the stuff the rta has planned

that's why I said NEW problems

[guy_in_dubai]

my bad

[Naz UK]

There isn't a "problem-free" city in the world, never has been, never will be! The article isn't talking about that.

You've got to compare cities on relative scale, not a "utopian" ideal of what a city should be like, in a dream world!

Dubai certainly does NOT have the worst traffic problems in the world, the worst pollution issues, the worst utilities infrastructure, the worst social and political issues and the worst living conditions. There are cities better, and worse.

I think the article is talking about the "efforts, intentions and "money-where-the-mouth-is-attempts" that are being made. And on this scale, Dubai certainly does look like an early contender.

[luv2bebrown]

this article's title implies "the best infrastructure in the middle east will be in dubai and doha in the year 2010"

that I can believe.


however in the article it states that "the best infrastructure will be in the middle east"

that I cannot believe.


by 2009, dubai will have just one measly metro line.
2020 will be another story

a fully integrated public transport system:
-multiple metro lines
-metro lines integrated with the metro systems of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi
-multiple project monorails linking into the metro
-multiple district tram lines linking into the metro
-a massive expanded bus service with air conditioned bus shelters
-an extended creek with an expanded water taxi service
-a local and inter-emirate coastal ferry service
-a greatly expanded road network including more creek crossings
-double decker freeways
-two world class airports
-two world class ports
-an integrated road, land, sea logistical hub

[malec]

Now all that's needed is an inter-city type rail service between the whole GCC. I've heard something about that before, hopefully it'll go ahead.

[Nasrawi]

Originally Posted by malec

Now all that's needed is an inter-city type rail service between the whole GCC. I've heard something about that before, hopefully it'll go ahead.

Yes, several proposals have been made about the route of this inter-GCC rail link. I think it's going to be some time before it gets the go ahead though.

I wonder how long a train journey from Dubai to Kuwait would take.

[Tom_Green]

The article is over optimistic.

As long as Dubai is booming as hell the infrastructure can`t be perfect.

[fahed]

It is no use to criticize the article. Heck, the writer is too amateur!