View Full Version : Dubai:IA overtakes Changi
Work is already underway on an exciting project in Dubai. Called the Burj Dubai which include a skyscraper of over 2000ft/610m tall (although the official height has been guarded a secret .. presumably for fears of rivalry. The design by SOM was chosen from the winning entry from a design competition held by the developer.
For more info / renderings visit website of its architect - Skidmore Owings & Merrill: www.som.com (see 'supertall' section).
----------------------------------------
The super tall Burj Dubai will be the centerpiece of a large scale mixed-use development being developed by Emaar Properties PJSC of Dubai, which will combine residential, commercial, hotel, entertainment, shopping and leisure outlets with open green spaces, water features, pedestrian boulevards, a shopping mall and a tourist-oriented old town.
The design of Burj Dubai is derived from the geometries of the desert flower, which is indigenous to the region, and the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. It combines historical and cultural influences with cutting edge technology to achieve a high-performance building which will set the new standard for development in the Middle East and become the model for the future of the city.
The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiraling pattern, decreasing the mass of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTW SOM is also collaborating with Libeskind Studios on the Freedom Tower (new WTC) project in New York.. although tower might not hold the crown for world's tallest when the Dubai project is finished :(
It would be good to see pictures and detailed info ... but they certainly wanna protect it as much as possible.
Some more info/pix are here:
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787
Skyscrapers.com (now Emporis) doesn't feature this building yet (strangely enough), but should be recommended anyway if you are interested in highrises ;):
www.emporis.com
And then there is the project developer's page, though it actually doesn't have much information:
http://www.emaar.com/new/projects_burjdubai.html
It really seems that this WILL be built (well it has been started) and also that it WILL be the world's tallest building upon completion. There are certainly competitors that will eventually beat Taipei 101 (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100765), but I think there are currently no other concrete plans for a building over 600 m (we have to assume that Burj Dubai will definitely surpass that mark)!
Originally posted by ncr
Some more info/pix are here:
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787
Skyscrapers.com (now Emporis) doesn't feature this building yet (strangely enough), but should be recommended anyway if you are interested in highrises ;):
www.emporis.com
Well.. you'd be surprise how much information there are on that website that is just not available to the public. What the website doesn't show you are all projects that are proposed or under construction. To get access to these info you need to subscribe to Emporis, or have access to its extranet database (ie. as an editor or photographer for the website). I can access these info since I've been an editor for that website (formerly skyscrapers.com) since 2001 ;)
And then there is the project developer's page, though it actually doesn't have much information:
http://www.emaar.com/new/projects_burjdubai.html
yeh I find that strange too. I'll try to source out any news from from other emporis editors responsible for Dubai. There may be news in Arabic media that we don't know of.
It really seems that this WILL be built (well it has been started) and also that it WILL be the world's tallest building upon completion. There are certainly competitors that will eventually beat Taipei 101 (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100765), but I think there are currently no other concrete plans for a building over 600 m (we have to assume that Burj Dubai will definitely surpass that mark)!
yep.. very true, although there is a mysterious project in Istanbul to be around 600m called Three Empire tower. The project has backing by the Mayor of Istanbul but seems it is only a proposal at this stage.. It will be difficult to build such high tower in such an earthquake prone area but they have built Taipei 101 and Jakarta is also building the world's tallest observation tower.
SO, the only serious SUPERTALL projects at the moment are:
Freedom Tower (New York) to be completed around 2008, designed by SOM, to be developed by Larry Silverstein, lease holder of the WTC site.
Kowloon MTR Tower (Hong Kong) to be completed in 2008
about 480m tall, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox - KPF.
Shanghai's World Financial Centre will be about 490m (to be completed in 2008, also designed by KPF), developed by Mori building co. of Japan.
The Enforcer!
15-07-04, 09:55 AM
I see from the press that the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, at 321m, is claiming the crown of tallest hotel in the world!
It surpasses our own Baiyoke Sky Hotel by 1m! Pity Baiyoke did not complete the top of their building with the lovely blue cupola that was first shown.
The Enforcer!
Was Baiyoke Sky Hotel ever really the tallest hotel? I thought the record was held by a hotel in Singapore and the rule was that the entire building had to house a hotel (that is, it couldn't be a mixed use building with a hotel in it).
Burj Dubai is now to be found on Emporis
(http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=182168),
and the height they announce for it is - brace yourself - 705m!
I think I'll have to go to Dubai in 2008!!! :) :) :)
The Enforcer!
15-07-04, 12:41 PM
Unfortunately I gave away my previous GBR so cannot see what they 'officially' had as the record holder.
Emporis website actually gives the title now to Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea but I believe that that was not completed or opened!
It certainly listed Baiyoke II as the world's tallest hotel 1997 to 2000 when it says the Emirates Hotel Tower took the title.
The Enforcer!
Soem facts.
The official height of Baiyoke II is 304m, as antennas are not counted in the structural height. So the Burj Al Arab is substantially higher at 321m. The current second highest hotel though (also in Dubai....), the Emirates Hotel Tower, surpasses Baiyoke by just 5 meters.
But actually it doesn't really matter anymore, as they are busy setting one construction record after the other in Dubai, with the Abbco Rotana Hotel (333m) scheduled to open in 2006.
Yes, The Stamford in Singapore (226m) was the tallest before Baiyoke II was finished and shortly held the record. Not sure about the regulations though, I also thought it has to be all-hotel, not mixed use. Oh, wait...... I just saw they defined that "90% of the occupiable height" must be devoted to hotel uses.
And the Ryugyong in Pyongyang is certainly an interesting contender - but never held any title as it is not completed. Just recently they found out that it is actually 330m, not 300m!
All the related links on Emporis:
Stamford: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=106471
Baiyoke: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=107136
Emirates Tower: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=107806
Burj Al Arab: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=107803
Abbco Rotana: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=203224
Ryugyong: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=130967
On the other hand, the "World's 50 tallest hotels" list on Emporis (http://www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/st/tp/ty/ho/) contradicts what they write elesewhere, as it is headed by the Ryugyong (because here all "topped out" structures are counted):
# Building City Height Height Floors Year
1. Ryugyong Hotel Pyongyang 330 m 1,083 ft 105 1992
2. Burj Al Arab Dubai 321 m 1,053 ft 60 1999
3. Emirates Hotel Tower Dubai 309 m 1,014 ft 56 2000
4. Baiyoke Tower II Bangkok 304 m 997 ft 85 1997
5. JR Central Hotel Tower Nagoya 226 m 741 ft 53 2000
6. Swissôtel The Stamford Singapore 226 m 741 ft 73 1986
7. Marriott Renaissance Center Detroit 221 m 726 ft 73 1977
8. Westin Peachtree Plaza Atlanta 220 m 723 ft 73 1976
9. Four Seasons Hotel New York City 208 m 682 ft 52 1993
10. Sofitel Jin Jiang Oriental Pudong Shanghai 207 m 679 ft 46 2002
Originally posted by admin
Was Baiyoke Sky Hotel ever really the tallest hotel? I thought the record was held by a hotel in Singapore and the rule was that the entire building had to house a hotel (that is, it couldn't be a mixed use building with a hotel in it).
I think you're right, a building has to be 100% hotel, the base of B2 is used for retail so that may not count.
Well despite the claim by its developer B2 was never officially recognized as the tallest hotel building in the world. When the building was completed in 1997 the Guiness Book of record listed the Stamford Raffles (now Swisshotel) in Singapore as the tallest hotel in the world. Also in 1998 Guiness Book of Record listed the Burj Dubai as the world's tallest hotel even though B2 has higher occupiable floor.
The Grand Hyatt Shanghai Hotel which occupies the 53rd to 87th floor of Jin Mao tower in Shanghai has the highest occupiable hotel floor (JinMao building is measured 420.5m to top of the spire).
From what I gathered the Ryukyong Hotel in Pyongyang has been under construction since the 80s but was never finished. The building looks like a giant rocket!! :)
And I heard Dubai is building another very very tall hotel - I forgot the name...
Khun Pas,
sorry, but did you only read the first two posts in this thread? :rolleyes:
And I heard Dubai is building another very very tall hotel - I forgot the name... Yes, that is the abovementioned Abbco Rotana:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=203224 (BTW, I really like this building's design.....)
I think you're right, a building has to be 100% hotel, the base of B2 is used for retail so that may not count. No, as I already laid out above, it just has to be a 90% hotel use at minimum, and this criterion is used for the official list on the Emporis website. At least that's what I gathered through a quick search there. In the "World's Tallest Building" thread you once told me that you are an editor for Emporis and have access to lots of 'hidden' information on that site. So if I as a normal user could find that info, I cannot see what the difficulty is and why you are making statements based on assumptions here.
P.S. No offence.... I was just wondering why you apparently ignored my post....
From what I gathered the Ryukyong Hotel in Pyongyang has been under construction since the 80s but was never finished. The building looks like a giant rocket!! Yes, but it also bears a striking resemblance to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's "1984"......
See http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/pyongyang/105BUILDING.htm for a description and two photos.
Another very tall hotel underconstruction right now is
Ritz Carlton Jakarta, it's going to be 327 metres. I'm trying to ascertain the no. of floors and date of completion.
Originally posted by ncr
Khun Pas,
sorry, but did you only read the first two posts in this thread? :rolleyes:
Yes, that is the abovementioned Abbco Rotana:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=203224 (BTW, I really like this building's design.....)
No, as I already laid out above, it just has to be a 90% hotel use at minimum, and this criterion is used for the official list on the Emporis website. At least that's what I gathered through a quick search there. In the "World's Tallest Building" thread you once told me that you are an editor for Emporis and have access to lots of 'hidden' information on that site. So if I as a normal user could find that info, I cannot see what the difficulty is and why you are making statements based on assumptions here.
P.S. No offence.... I was just wondering why you apparently ignored my post....
Khun NCR I'm really sorry I was glancing through the post very quickly and between that doing something else. no offence taken.
I could have find out the info if I had followed those links.
On that note I noticed another editor at emporis has added to the building fact that *Baiyoke 2 is an all hotel. That's not true because the hotel occupied the 22nd floor to 74th floor and the lower part occupies by a garment center.
But I am really just curious to know why the Guiness Book of Records never 'officially' recognise B2 as the tallest hotel. This raise doubt in my mind.. what criteria do they use?
BTW thanks for the info on that hotel building in Dubai.
No problem, Pas! :)
Hope to meet you at the next 2bangkok.com meeting!
One of the largest Dusit hotel outside of Thailand, it occupied the upper floors of Habtoor Tower 1, a 37 storeys building in Dubai:
here is the official website:
http://dubai.dusit.com/
more info at emporis website:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=107730
One simply has to be amazed by all those outlandish construction projects going on in Dubai...... By now everyone should know those emirs mean business. They are hell-bent to put this former sleepy backwater (fisherman/pearl diver village surrounded by desert) firmly onto the global map.
Let's see what we have so far:
*Burj al-Arab
*Burj Dubai
*194 skyscrapers under construction (a number only surpassed by Hong Kong, it seems) and another 158 approved (Emporis (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/?id=100485)), 7 of which are taller than 300m
*the world's largest shopping mall (I think)
*Palm Islands
*"The World" Islands Project
(and I know there are many many more...)
One might say that elsewhere they have visions, but in Dubai they build them..... I was there for one day in 2002 and found it rather dull, but in 5 or 10 years this will be one hot city. I mean, I suspect it will still feel like a giant Disneyland, somewhat antiseptic, planned, result of a political agenda, not of an organic growth - but the sheer number of skyscrapers and other breathtaking architectural/ landscaping developments (and also the quality of the designs)....!
Anyway, today I came across Hydropolis (http://www.hydropolis.com/media/index.html) - a luxury underwater hotel 20 m below the surface of the Persian Golf.
Some facts from the website:
Project Data
Landside approx: 30.000 sq.m (Gross Floor Area)
Hydropolis Hotel approx: 75.000 sq.m (Gross Floor Area)
Milestones
Start of Design 2003 April
Start of Construction 2004 September
Finalizing Construction 2006 July
Opening 2006 December
And a couple of renderings (warning, they are huge):
topview (http://www.hydropolis.com/media/images/topview3d.jpg)
sideview (http://www.hydropolis.com/media/images/sideview.jpg)
at night (http://www.hydropolis.com/media/images/atnight.jpg)
location (http://www.hydropolis.com/media/images/location.jpg)
Seems they never run out of innovative ideas. A paradise for architects: design your boldest pipe dream, they will realize it, no matter at what cost. Or rather to the contary - extreme luxury is a prerequisite! :D
Today The Nation mentioned the ongoing construction of Ski Dubai - the world's third largest indoor ski resort (complete with snowfall!) - as a part of the Dubai Mall.
Will be pretty weird, with all the desert around... :D
I just read the article on Dubai (http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=5807) on 2Bangkok frontpage today.
The article seem to imply (and everybody I know seem to think) that Dubai is reliance on money from the oil proceeds to pursue these mega projects! Anyway I thought Dubai economy is one of the most diversified in Mid East? besides most of oil are in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia?
Here's an excerpt from USA today.
Economy:
Dubai's economy was built on the back of the oil industry, which developed rapidly after oil was first struck in the mid 1960s. Since then Dubai has developed a diverse economy and by 2000 the oil sector accounted for just 10 percent of Dubai's GDP. The city now has thriving manufacturing, finance, information technology and tourism sectors and is home to numerous multinational companies such as AT&T, General Motors, Heinz, IBM, Shell, and Sony. Figures published by the Dubai Development and Investment Authority show that Dubai's GDP totaled $16.4 billion US in 2000.
The manufacturing sector in Dubai is very healthy with some of the most important industries including beverages, chemicals, paper, pharmaceuticals and rubber. The financial services industry grew by a remarkable 12 percent per annum during the 1990s and this trend seems set to continue. All the major international accountancy firms have offices in Dubai and the city is also home to dozens of national and locally incorporated international banks. Furthermore, the banking sector will be completely opened up to foreign banks by 2005. In March 2000, the UAE's first stock exchange, the Dubai Financial Market was opened.
To encourage the development of the technology sector the Dubai Internet City was established. This information technology and telecommunications centre has been set up inside a free trade zone and allows 100 percent foreign ownership and sales, while company earnings and private income are exempt from any form of taxation. The site is already home to hundreds of companies including Arabia, Cisco, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
The tourist industry is the fastest growing sector within Dubai's economy. The number of tourists visiting Dubai has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, especially with regards to visitors from Western Europe, and the government hopes to attract 10 million tourists a year by 2010. With this in mind, huge investment is being made to develop the city's hotel, leisure and recreational infrastructure.
I also saw various news report that Dubai is building 'life size' replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramid of Giza and the Tower of Babel in a new theme park!! anyone has more info on this?
Now I'm not sure how tall is the real Tower of Babel. I thought that was only a myth?
jpatokal
19-07-05, 07:40 PM
Now I'm not sure how tall is the real Tower of Babel. I thought that was only a myth?
According to the apocryphal Book of Jubilees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jubilees), its height was 5433 cubits and two palms, or approx. 2,483 meters tall. Whether you can build that out of bricks in 400 BC is left as an exercise to the reader. For extra credit, figure out the odds of the Dubaians managing to copy it :p
Nearly 2.5km tall. that's about the height of 17.8 largest pyramids (at Giza) stacking on top of one another!
I think they could have better chance sculpting a whole mountain into the shape of the Tower of Babel.
Here's an idea. They could quarry a big chunk of iceberg from Antarctica, put it in a climate control area in Ski Dubai resort and make a big ice sculpture out of it :D
Be careful with your words, Pas, or the Sheikhs will pick up the idea and implement it without batting an eyelid! :D
Basically the same story reported everywhere:
Cheap Flights (http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/2005/11/dubai_well_buil.html)
Deccan Herald (http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov222005/update6554220051122.asp)
Hindustan Times (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1554355,00020016.htm)
New Kerala (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=56006)
Fly Away (http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt9768.html) Forum - including a link to a model (http://www.aspelund.org/images/dfs/1.jpg) of the airport.
Dubai International Airport (http://www.dubaiairport.com/DIA/English/TopMenu/News+and+Press/Airport+News/Jebel+Ali+Airport.htm)
Only Punjab (http://onlypunjab.com/fullstory2k5-insight-news-status-20-newsID-74328.html)
MENAFN (http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=115245)
Plus an article about "the world's largest airport hangar" (http://www.ameinfo.com/60085.html).
All the information you ever needed about the construction progress, with lotsa photos and diagrams:
http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com/
21 March 2007 Height update: Burj Dubai is at level 116 at 406.5 meters
(and therefore currently the 7th tallest skyscraper in the world).
Now most likely to reach a height of 800+ meters!
Note completion date postponed to 30 June 2009.
jpatokal
02-06-07, 09:38 PM
Craziest skyscraper design ever (http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/25/futuristic-rotating-tower-skyscraper-in-dubai/) (with pics and a video):
Dubbed ‘Rotating Tower in Motion’ building based on ‘Dynamic Architecture‘ concept by Florentine architect David Fisher is first of its kind and trend-setting. Not only be the pioneer, the Dynamic Architecture building which will constantly in motion changing its shape with each floor capable of spin, move and rotate 360 degress independent of one another, will also be able to generate electric energy enough for itself as well as for other surrounding buildings from at least 48 wind turbines that fitted between each rotating floors as well as the solar panels positioned on the roof of the building that will produce pollution-free energy from wind and the sunlight. Any acoustics issues are solved by modern design of the building and the carbon fiber special shape of the wings. And the floor only rotates at the slow speed of about 6 meters a minutes, so that guests inside probably won’t feel it.
doseiai
06-08-07, 05:54 PM
Huge new page for Dubai metro with cool construction pics and trains...
i need to get my butt to dubai one day...if i can afford it!!!
http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/dubaimetro/index.html
Wonder if he does carbon offsets?::rolleyes:
Alwaleed first private buyer of A380 superjumbo
DUBAI: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire who is Citigroup Inc's biggest individual investor, agreed to buy a US$319mil Airbus SAS A380 superjumbo, becoming the first private customer for the world's biggest aircraft.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/archives/2007/11/13/business/p10-alwaleed.JPG
[Photo: The Star - Prince Alwaleed bin Talal]
The purchase was announced by Toulouse, France-based Airbus at the Dubai Air Show yesterday. Alwaleed, ranked the world's 13th richest person by Forbes magazine, flew in from Saudi Arabia on his Boeing 747.
Surging oil prices have helped boost sales of private jetliners in the Middle East. The double-deck A380, which seats 525 people in a standard airline configuration, can house three bedrooms, private lounges, bathrooms, offices, a steam bath and exercise machines in a so-called VIP set-up, according to Deutsche AG's maintenance arm, which outfits plane interiors.
Airbus, the world's biggest maker of commercial aircraft, expects to sell 30 to 35 VIP planes a year, with the Middle East accounting for as many as 40% of them, Richard Gaona, vice-president for executive and private aviation, said in January. The company was in talks with two potential A380 customers, he said at the time.
Airbus began offering planes configured as business aircraft in 1999, initially focusing on the A319, normally a 124-seat jet.
Since then, the company has doubled its sales of VIP planes and added larger models such as widebody A330 and A340. Airbus has sold 80 private jets in total, Gaona said in January.
Private aviation in the Middle East, the world's third largest market after the US and Europe, may grow 10%-12% annually, doubling in value to about US$800mil by 2012, Ali al-Naqbi, chairman of the Dubai-based Middle East Business Aviation Association, said on Jan 11. – Bloomberg
Latest business news from AP-Wire
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/13/business/19452786&sec=business
jpatokal
19-01-08, 01:17 AM
Greetings from Dubai, where I had the chance to see a small slice of this madness (http://www.dubai-architecture.info/DUB-GAL1.htm) with my own eyes. (Earlier today, anyway; I'm already in Riyadh as I type this.)
The Burj Dubai really is absolutely insane -- it's grown at least another 100m since I last saw it in September. I mean, Dubai's already got a pretty impressive skyline when coming in from the sea, but esp. at night (it's now lit up) it's just two to three sizes taller than anything else in sight! And they aren't even finished: at ~600m now, it's already the tallest building ever built, but they're still going to add another 100 to 200m to it :eek:
The Palm Jumeirah is rapidly nearing completion, and this lucky bastard did a helicopter tour of it and got some amazing shots:
http://picasaweb.google.com/d.v.litsenborgh/20082008ArabEmiratesOfDubaiAjmanSjarjahRasAlKhaima hSultanateOfOman
(scroll all the way to the end)
Some good pics of the Burj al-Arab of "seven-star" fame too.
What is the Trump Twin Towers building proposed for Dubai? Is that also an hotel, or residential/business use?
jpatokal
28-01-08, 08:11 PM
What is the Trump Twin Towers building proposed for Dubai? Is that also an hotel, or residential/business use?
Hotel and residential. This is the striking tulip-like building they were planning for the "trunk" of the Palm Jumeirah, although the latest renders look rather more conventional. Wikipedia, Emporis and Skyscrapercity on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_International_Hotel_and_Tower_(Dubai)
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=streetpalmtrumpinternationalhoteltower-dubai-unitedarabemirates
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=17996706
ric Ellis
18 February 2008
The Emirates’ glittering riches are being built by poverty-stricken laborers from the subcontinent with few options
http://www.asiasentinel.com/images/stories/smoothgallery/JAN2008/dub-const.jpg
Photo: Asian Sentinel - Almas Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers in Dubai, February 2007.]
Although Dubai and its neighboring Gulf emirates have posted economic growth in recent years that would embarrass China, much of it is built on an invisible worker army – predominantly South Asian — whose endless toil is crucial to Dubai's massive boom and who are housed in a slum of astonishing proportions, hidden in the dunes between Dubai and Sarjah.
Without Sonapur, as it is called, Dubai's spas and tax-free splendor likely wouldn't exist. It is a Middle Eastern Soweto of as many as 500,000 foreign laborers, mostly from the impoverished rural villages of the Asian subcontinent.
Sonapur is one of the biggest communities in the United Arab Emirates but it doesn't seem to officially exist. It isn't found on official maps, road signs or even Wikipedia. Its wretched sprawl of filthy dormitories is concealed in the dunes, an anonymous slum hidden from the Dubaians whose apartments its residents built. The best way to find Sonapur is to follow one of the myriad worker buses that shuttle between the many building sites. Some 90 minutes away is a heaving sandswept plain of utilitarian four-story dormitories as far as the eye can see, punctuated by the occasional store selling ghee, naan and curry powders.
Dubai gleams with world-class infrastructure but Sonapur’s roads are gravel and sand with few footpaths. Open sewers are common. There's none of the grass that Dubai's luxury developments specialize in claiming from the desert. The United Arab Emirates is strictly Islamic and Sonapur's few places of worship for Hindus and Buddhists tend to be makeshift.
Dubai's economy expanded by 35 percent in 2006, and about 20 percent last year. It's not oil ‑ that ran out decades ago. Dubai's rags-to-riches miracle relies on an age-old business plan: slave labor in the form of millions of poor Sri Lankans, Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Africans working up to 80 hour-plus weeks. They have built this gleaming oasis. With their passports seized as insurance, these bonded workers toil in near year-round 45-50 degree heat for about $US8 a day.
It's almost as if Dubai's employers have scanned the latest global wealth survey and zeroed in on the poorest 20 nations to staff their projects. Promised riches but paid salaries well below the OECD poverty line, they have been deployed here by unscrupulous middlemen charitably described as "employment agencies" who wouldn't have been out of place in 1780s Atlanta.
Boosters argue the emirate is correcting the world's economic imbalance. The US was also built on immigrant labor, they note, ignoring the fact that those immigrants to the US could at least become citizens, which is impossible in the UAE.
No country relies more on foreign labor than the emirates, nor are the citizens of any nation more outnumbered by outsiders. Of the nearly 5 million people who officially live in the United Arab Emirates, 80-85 per cent come from somewhere else. The few Emiratis one meets casually in Dubai tend to be airport officials processing passports on the way in, or people boozing in the alcohol-relaxed emirate's many bars. State-owned Emirates Airlines is a formidable competitor among the world’s smaller airlines with Emirates' new planes soon to pull up at the world's biggest airport which is being built on Sonapur’s cheap labor. There is no fear of strikes for higher wages or other unrest. Should that happen, the workers would just be shipped home and replaced by another batch.
There is much that is otherworldly about Dubai, which seems to have taken a mortgage on the term "world's biggest.” Dubai is building the world's biggest hotel, airport, shopping mall, artificial island and marina. There's that bizarre development called "the World,” where the rich and gauche pay US$20 million and more for man-made islands arranged in a strange archipelago mapped like the globe. The indoor ski resort with its own micro-climate particularly appalls environmentalists.
The Burj Dubai is another anything-is-possible phenomenon. Owned, like many things here, by the reclusive royal family, at 600 meters it is the world's tallest building and seems destined to be mankind's first kilometer-high tower. What isn't much mentioned is that the project is riven with industrial strife, where workers ‑ many billeted at Sonapur ‑ have revolted after being denied breaks and even the relief of water from the searing sun, lest they be sacked and sent home, at their own expense. Some workers have died, but you don't much read about that in what passes for the local press.
Emaar, the Burj's royal family-owned developer, refuses to comment.
I visited Akbar at his filthy dormitory in Sonapur. He is a 26-year-old Afghan and has been working on a Dubai construction site since 2003, after he gave $2500 rustled from relatives to a labor broker in Kabul. That got him to Dubai, where he was promised he would make that back in a month, and be able to send money home to his impoverished family.
Akbar says he clears about $10 a day for a six-day week, sharing a putrid room with 10 men who sleep in shifts, alternating rest on five bunk beds and the floor.
Sleep can be difficult. The dorm lights are on 24/7, and shift changes and prayer means there is a constant hubbub of activity; someone cooking or dressing, mobile phones chirruping. The bus station outside his window processes workers for the hour trip each-way to job sites.
In a scalding recent paper called Building Towers, Cheating Workers, Human Rights Watch demanded the emirates "end abusive labor practices", describing working conditions in Dubai as "less than human.” Just 140 labor inspectors monitor 4 million workers.
"In most other places, a worker faced with hazardous working conditions and unpaid wages, in a free market economy that has an extreme shortage of labor, would move to a different job," Human Rights Watch said. "But this is not an option for the migrant construction workers of the UAE, who like all other migrant workers in the country are contracted to work only for a specific employer.
"A worker seeking to move to a different employer is eligible to do so only after working for two years for the present (employer)."
Dubai is also been a big winner from the September 11 attacks. As oil hovers at about $US100 a barrel, Arab petrodollars are speculatively parked here, because their owners sometimes feel discriminated against when they travel to the West. The US remembers that 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Saudi, and the plot was financed with money washed through Dubai.
The emirates' sovereign wealth funds have also emerged as some of the world's most aggressive buyers of prime Western assets in recent years; ports, marquee property and infrastructure.
As the working poor of Sonapur lament, democracy and workers' rights are not high on the national priority list. Not that the untaxed Emiratis seem to much notice, as they count their money and invest in soaring towers of speculation that seem to defy economic gravity as well as nature.
Eric Ellis is South-East Asia Correspondent of Fortune magazine. Another version of this appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age of Melbourne.
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1052&Itemid=32
April 07, 2008 15:18 PM
Double-Decker Buses Arrive In Dubai
DUBAI, April 7 (Bernama) -- The much-awaited swanky double-decker buses have finally arrived in the emirate, said Emirates News Agency (WAM) quoting a local media report Monday.
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Sunday announced the arrival of a batch of 626 buses, which includes 170 double-decker buses, 150 standard buses and 300 articulated buses, according to a report in Khaleej Times.
Earlier, the RTA had pointed out that these buses would start carrying passengers in between the two emirates from September this year.
The RTA would be starting with 15 double-decker buses in September and the number would be increased to 70 in the coming months. The remaining buses would be used on various other routes in Dubai.
The double-decker bus can accommodate up to 160 passengers in all. The articulated bus will accommodate 100 passengers and the standard bus has a capacity of 57 passengers. These buses are fitted with the latest technologies and highest security and safety standards. Their designs have been customised to serve the requirements of special need persons.
The RTA also said that the new buses are fitted with sophisticated systems and technologies such as voice announcement of the next stop, and a statistical system to count passengers and automatically detect demand on various bus routes.
"Each of the new buses is fitted with a giant screen at its front faade enabling passengers a clear vision of the bus destination, route and number. There are also three screens at the right and left hand sides of the bus indicating the route and destination in both Arabic and English.
"The buses are also fitted with internal display monitors at the backside of drivers seat and behind the second and third doors of the articulated buses displaying bus stops and routes," the RTA said.
-- BERNAMA
Non-specific link:
http://www.bernama.com.my/
jpatokal
08-04-08, 05:35 PM
I had the dubious pleasure of testing out Dubai's bus system last week, and suffice it to say that they still have a long way to go.
The much-ballyhooed aircon bus stops remain wrapped up and unusable, presumably due to some unresolved contract dispute. In the meantime, passengers get to stand out in the sun without even any shade. :mad:
The bus system is already operating beyond capacity, with low frequencies (30-40 min is not unusual) and consequently buses packed to the max even during off-peak hours and well beyond it outside them. 750 new high-capacity buses will certainly help, but it will take the metro to really improve things.
The big unknown is how Dubai's social stratification will fit into modern public transport. At present, no self-respecting Emirati will use the buses (everybody who can drives), so the passengers are all those who use the buses because they have no choice: the poor Indian/Filipino masses that keep Dubai humming. The Metro will have the interesting experiment of featuring "gold" and "silver" classes, so the wealthy locals don't have to slum it with the hoi polloi... but I still have the sneaky suspicion that they'll continue to prefer their SUVs to any mode of public transport, especially if the metro improves the current (terrible) traffic jams.
Yappofloyd
08-04-08, 08:50 PM
The big unknown is how Dubai's social stratification will fit into modern public transport. At present, no self-respecting Emirati will use the buses (everybody who can drives), so the passengers are all those who use the buses because they have no choice: the poor Indian/Filipino masses that keep Dubai humming. The Metro will have the interesting experiment of featuring "gold" and "silver" classes, so the wealthy locals don't have to slum it with the hoi polloi... but I still have the sneaky suspicion that they'll continue to prefer their SUVs to any mode of public transport, especially if the metro improves the current (terrible) traffic jams.
I've caught Dubai buses on and off over the last 5 years when travelling through. There really is a 'caste' syatem in place as you never see any locals but only the Indian and Filipino workers as Jpatokal says. It will never happen for a Dubian to catch a bus. Very rare to see tourists if at all. Frequency is a problem as is capacity on some routes. Waiting for a bus in the middle of summer requires some perserverance.
Double decker buses sound good and one the metro is up and running next year it will in about 5 years with the 4 metro lines (plus more to come later), mono-rails & light rails be an easy place to get around.
See also previous 3 posts on Dubai's investment in buses.
Alstom, partners bag Dubai tram job
Published: 2008/04/30
PARIS: Alstom SA, the world's largest train maker, and its partners won a four billion dirham, or US$1.1 billion (US$1 = RM3.15) contract to design and build a tram system in Dubai.
The French company and partners Serco Group Ltd, Parsons Corp and Besix Group will build a 14km tram line and as many as 19 metro stations in Al Safooh, Dubai's Roads & Transport Authority said in a statement yesterday.
The line is scheduled to come into service in 2011. - Bloomberg
http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Wednesday/BizBriefs/tram30.xml/Article/
April 30, 2008 16:41 PM
Dubai Is World's Sixth Busiest Airport
DUBAI, April 30 (Bernama) -- Dubai International Airport overtook Singapore's Changi in the first quarter, to become the sixth busiest airport worldwide, latest industry figures show.
The growing passengers in Dubai, which reached 9.34 million in the first three months of the year, underlined calls by industry leaders for a new regional traffic control system to bring order to dangerously congested skies over the Gulf, the Emirates news agency (WAM) quoted a report by "The National" as saying on Wednesday.
The latest figures from Airports Council International, a global industry association, mark a passing of the torch to the Gulf by Asian airlines that became a global force in the 1970s but are now losing business to this region.
GCC countries should establish a centralised air traffic control system because the region's air corridors are becoming dangerously congested, the chief executive of Dubai Airports Paul Griffiths said.
Airlines such as Emirates and Etihad are growing faster than air traffic control systems can handle, said Griffiths, who heads the Dubai Government-owned firm that manages the emirate's airports.
Speaking at an aviation conference at Grosvenor House hotel in Dubai, Griffiths called on the UAE to forge an accord with its neighbours to create a unified air traffic control system.
"This is a very urgent and pressing issue. We need to devote significant emphasis on designing the airspace in Dubai and the GCC," said Griffiths.
The executive continued that Gulf countries need to gain more expertise in managing air space, and could learn from Europe, where there was greater co-operation between military and civil aviation agencies.
A regional agreement would help unravel some of the restrictive air policies in the Middle East. Currently, airlines are forced to fly certain air corridors, in what has been described as the airline equivalent of the Strait of Hormuz.
The restrictions also saddle airlines with extra costs: there are security-related no-fly zones in Iran, Afghanistan, Kuwait and parts of Saudi Arabia and that forces flights from Dubai to the UK or Australia to make detours taking them hundreds of kilometres off course.
One of the main reasons Dubai Airports is pressing for regional airspace co-operation is that it expects to receive an influx of new flights to Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali, which is under construction and expected to open its runways to cargo flights and budget airlines next year.
Griffiths said that Dubai Airports had commissioned a study by NATS, the UK-based air-traffic controller, on how to design the airspace in and around the six-runway Al Maktoum airport, which is to handle as many as 150 million passengers and up to 12 million tonnes of cargo a year.
He noted that Abu Dhabi International Airport is also expected to begin construction of its new Midfield Terminal, which will have capacity for some 40 million passengers a year.
To operate these two airports properly, Griffiths said the industry was in desperate need of new air traffic controllers.
Dubai Airports is also expected to expand its partnerships with academic institutions to train more airport workers.
-- BERNAMA
Non-specific link:
http://www.bernama.com.my/
jpatokal
02-05-08, 06:26 PM
DUBAI, April 30 (Bernama) -- Dubai International Airport overtook Singapore's Changi in the first quarter, to become the sixth busiest airport worldwide, latest industry figures show.
The growing passengers in Dubai, which reached 9.34 million in the first three months of the year, underlined calls by industry leaders for a new regional traffic control system to bring order to dangerously congested skies over the Gulf, the Emirates news agency (WAM) quoted a report by "The National" as saying on Wednesday.
This is bullshit. Even at 37 million pax (9.34 times 4), DXB would barely squeak into the top 20 of busiest airports by passenger traffic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic). They presumably meant the world's 6th busiest airport by international passenger traffic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_airports_by_international_passen ger_traffic), which conveniently (but totally artificially) drops most US airports and some other domestic heavy-hitters like Tokyo-Haneda and Beijing off the charts.
All that said, the growth of DXB is amazing though. I've been through 12 times this year (and counting), and even during midday off-peak hours the crowds can be amazing -- I was stuck in a miniature traffic jam in the bloody duty free shop yesterday! :eek: I can't wait for them to open Terminal 3, now scheduled for August...
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.