Work will soon commence on Dubai’s four-billion smart city: a complex of luxury high-tech companies and offices, apartment towers with state-of-the-art Internet connection and Web technology at the disposal of the city’s residents that might reach 100,000.
According to a report by DIT.com, the city is designed on an area of 578-hectares with landscaped parks, 100 medium and high rise office and apartment towers, schools and colleges and luxury hotels overlooking a scenic beach resort.
The first step is to build a group of installations named “Dubai Marina”: tower blocks within Dubai Internet City, the first of which is due to be erected in 2002.
The huge project is undertaken by EMAAR, a UAE-based real estate giant partly owned by the Dubai Government, and the same company behind DIC, with Marconi as the contractor for the communications infrastructure estimated to be worth $550 million over the next 10 years, according to the report.
EMAAR introduces Dubai Marina as a new concept of living in the Middle East on “unspoiled beaches” on which luxurious villas, towers, classy restaurants, mall and cafes are built to make the lives of the rich residents dreamlike.
Marconi will "design, build and operate a totally new communications network for Dubai Marina, Emirates Hills and Emirates Lakes, using the most advanced technologies and applications available, including regular upgrades so that it remains at the cutting edge of global communications, according to the DIT report.
Emirates Hills and Emirates Lakes are other projects by EMAAR. They are residential properties located close to Dubai Marina.
Marconi will build a high bandwidth network to provide access to local services via an intranet that has a high speed link to global services via the Internet and international telephone networks.
Neil Sutcliffe, CEO of Marconi's Services Division, said in a statement published by his company’s website in October 2000 that: "EMAAR chose Marconi because we were the only company able to present a forward-looking vision of communications to help realize its dreams for the city of the future - and back it up with the resources to deliver a fully working, fully integrated system."
"Dubai Marina is the most exciting development project in the world: the opportunity to create the first truly intelligent city. It will be a living demonstration of all that is best in every aspect of communications for business, government and the home,” Marconi’s top executive said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
