Dubai set to open new mammoth mall; "The Dubai Mall"

One of the world's largest shopping malls is set to open on Augest 28, 2008... The Dubai Mall..


Numbers:



Total Internal Floor Area: 5.9 million square feet

Gross Leasable Area (GLA): 3.77 million square feet - around size of 50 football fields put together

Children’s ‘edu-tainment’ Centre: 80,000 sq ft


No. of Stores: 1,200 stores


Restaurants: 120 food & beverage outlets


Cinemas : 22-screen cineplex, will open later as completion requires a dust-free environment

Car Park: 14,000-vehicle capacity

World Rank: 8th largest mall in the world

First Year Expected No. of Visitors to the Mall: 30 million

[theduabimall.com said]


Downtown Burj Dubai

Dubai Mall is part of Emaar Properties' $20 billion Downtown Burj Dubai development will include:

The world's tallest building the Burj Dubai, 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 6.2 acres of parkland, 19 residential towers and a 30-acre manmade lake.

[ArabianBusiness.com said]


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If interested to know more and updated details about "The Dubai Mall", please visit:

http://www.thedubaimall.com/


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Picasso Exhibition at Emirates Palace

The Arab world's first public exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso in Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace... Starting from today, May27,2008, and running till Sep04, 2008.






( To learn more about Pablo Picasso, click here )



As mentioned in emiratespalace.com, Abu Dhabi is the second city in a nine-nation tour of the exhibition, after the launch in Madrid's Reina Sofía museum, and it is the only Middle Eastern venue on the tour.



The UAE capital exhibition being differentiated by the exclusive inclusion of 40 drawings, prints and illuminated manuscripts reminiscent of the Arab influences Picasso absorbed during his youth in Malaga.

( To learn more about the exhibition, click here )

( To learn more about the exhibition at Emirates Palace, click here )

Dubai Metro Train Test-Run - VIDEO

Dubai Metro! On The Right Track..

How happy you feel when you find your dream is becoming reality!

If we, people, felt this much of happiness when we first saw this great achivment of Dubai Metro being tested, successfully.. Then how did the crew who worked on it hardly with big efforts and high efficiency, how did they feel?!

That's really amazing! Incredible! Awsome!

Dubai Metro Since 2006 till now
The Roads and Transport Authority announced the Dubai Metro Project on March 21, 2006 with His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai inaugurated the construction work. [As in Khaleej Times]

The first testings, successfully, have been done this month .

Work will be continued and testings as well and whole project is expected to be completed by 2010. When completed, Dubai Metro will have a total of 70 kilometres of lines.

Expectations:

The total length of the Dubai Metro is expected to reach 318 km by 2020. When fully functional, the metro will be able to carry about 1.8 million passengers every day.

The lines are divided into 4,
which are[Dubai Metro]:

RED LINE (Under Construction)
The Line is 52.0 km long
Completion: 2009
Rout: Rashidiya to Jabel Ali

GREEN LINE (Under Construction)
The Line is 22.5 km long.
Completiion: 2010
Rout: Al Qusais to Al Jedaff

BLUE LINE (On Plan)
The Line will be 47.0 km long.
Completiion: 2011
Rout: Dubai International Airport to Jebel Ali Airport, along Emirates Road

The Purple (On Plan)
The Line will be 49.0 km long.
Completiion: 2012
Rout: Dubai International Airport to Jebel Ali Airport, along Al Khail Road

Note: The total cost of the project is Dh15.5 billion (USD 4.2 billion) and will be completed in a matter of 49 months time.

List of Stations:

Dubai Metro stations will be designed along the theme water and sea life, e.g. the sea shell form is preferred for its total impression, smooth roofs and a seeming light construction. Also, trains are painted this way, light blue is dominating.

Red Line:
- Jebel Ali Port Station
-Stations 2 - 5
- American University in Dubai
- Internet City Station
- Stations 8 and 9
- Souk al Nakheel Station
- Stations 11 - 17
- Burj Dubai Station
- Financial City Station
- Emirates Towers Station
- Trade Center Station
- Stations 22 - 24
- BurJuman Station
- Station 26
- al-Ittihad Square Station
- Salahuddin Station
- Stations 29 - 34
- Airport Free Zone Station

Green Line:
- Festival City Station
- Stations 2 and 3
- Health Care City Station
- Stations 5 - 7
- BurJuman Station
- Stations 9 - 13
- al-Ittihad Square Station
- Stations 15 - 16
- Dubai International Airport Terminal 1 Station
- Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 Station
- Station 21
- Rashidiya Station

Trains will be driverless and include 3 classes: the Golden Class (VIP), the Women and Children’s Class and the Silver Class (economy).

Stations will offer taxi depots and park-and-ride facilities.

HOW GREAT!

Prices of Essential Items Rising Again in UAE

Previously, I talked about the egg price increase in the UAE.
The problem of increasing prices is getting worse now, instead of doing something towards that!
The prices are in continuing rising for the most essential items.
An article published in Gulfnews yeseterday, May 15, 2008, about this tight spot issue, mentioning some examples, like:

- A kilogram of whole local Kanaad fish is sold at Carrefour Dubai for Dh39.90, whereas it was Dh33.90 last month - an increase of Dh6.

- Anchor milk powder, also locally sourced in the UAE, which was Dh59.95 per 2.5 kilogram, is now sold in the market for as high as Dh65.20, which shows a rise of more than Dh5.

- The Lacnor full cream milk (long life) also went up to Dh3.50 per one litre from Dh2.90.

And the list doesn't stop here...

The question which arises itself here: Why is that? And what's the aim?
We need an answer.. because this is related to many important factors, which must be taken into consideration besides the main subject!

From my side, I'm feeling that this subject is not covered and analyzed by media the way and much it needed to.. All the updated articles are just mentioning two main points:
1) Prices are rising again.
2) People can't handle and they're watching their budgets!

So, that's all?
It shouldn't.

Tower Fire in Dubai Internet City

Again.. and in short.. Fire Accident in Dubai!

I really don't know if that should be called delinquency... unconsciousness... or what!

You can go to this page to understand why I'm being angry about this subject.

Some details about today's newest fire accident in Dubai:

A fire broke out in a skyscraper on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on Wednesday, with no casualties or injuries reported.

Abu Nasier, head of media coordination at Dubai Civil Defence, said the fire started at 2:12 pm (GMT 1012) on the 30th floor of Al Salam Tecom Tower, a 47-storey building still under construction in Dubai Internet City (DIC).

The building is located along Sheikh Zayed Road behind the BBC World Building in Dubai Media City (DMC). [arabianbusiness says]

So far no casualties have been reported. [Gulfnews says]

The Massive Increase in the Number of Cars in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, is facing a massive increase in number of cars. This problem has been arisen in the year 2000 and the number of cars was gradually increasing since then till 2005. But from 2005 till now; 2008, the number of cars is increasing so vastly and the problem is just being worse.
The problem in having this huge number of cars doesn’t count for causing traffic jam only, but also in causing difficulty, or dilemma, in finding a parking whenever you reach your desired destination.
Yes that’s true! If you need 15 minutes to reach the place you want to go to, then you need one extra hour or more to get a parking for your car. (And this is now in almost all the areas of the city).

Statistics:

(As in UAEInteract & ADPolice)

According to statistics provided by the Abu Dhabi Traffic Department, the number of vehicles in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, inclusive of Al Ain and Tarif, has gone up from 242,409 in 2000 to 526,161 in 2007.

On average, 250 licences are issued every day in Abu Dhabi.

Reasons:

The increase in the number of licences issued every day, easy availability of car loans and more and more companies providing cars for their employees have contributed to the drastic increase in the vehicle to population ratio in the country. As UAEInteract mentioned.

Solution:

As I said, the capital is facing a shortage of parking spaces. And if we just come back to 2006, from the UAEInteract archive I got this:

“The Municipality and the Town Planning Department is working on a pilot model project for better parking management, which if found useful, will be implemented in congested areas of the capital.”

Exclamation Mark
So, those are 2 years since 2006 and we have not seen anything.. instead, the problem is getting worse and no serious steps have been put into action.

Out of Control !!!!