Labour villages to house 62,500 people

Dubai Industrial City said yesterday that work on building five labour villages was well underway.

"Once completed the villages will accommodate about 62,500 supervisors and labourers, offering investors in the city and across Dubai the chance to provide their employees with high levels of accommodation," said Vice-President Rashed Al Ansari.

"We are investing more than Dh1 billion in this project and have so far completed 40 per cent of the construction work across all five villages. Two will be ready by the end of this year and the remainder will be operational by the first quarter of 2009. Each village will have 26 residential buildings offering bed space for about 12,500 people."

Al Ansari stressed that the villages had been designed to the highest standards and would offer a high level of accommodation.

"We are not building residential buildings for labourers, we are developing entire villages that offer residents an easier and more pleasant living environment along with a wide range of services and facilities from entertainment to shopping and basic amenities such as medical, security and civil defence services," said Al Ansari.

He stressed that the design of the villages incorporated the latest advances in design and planning.

"We are constructing a total of 230 buildings across the five villages that will offer comprehensive facilities and services. All the buildings will be equipped with central air-conditioning and each village will have seven restaurants to meet the needs of its residents in addition to sports areas dedicated to football, volleyball and cricket.

"There will be other facilities such as a supermarket, shops, a mosque, post office and bus parking areas for the transportation of labourers, to name but a few."

He said the villages would be uniform in design and layout and would offer three types of rooms to meet the varying requirements of different companies. "We are building flexible accommodation that offers single rooms for supervisors as well as rooms that can accommodate five people and larger ones for eight labourers. The idea is to ensure that we offer them good living standards and facilities that meet their daily needs."

The 560 million square foot Dubai Industrial City, part of Tatweer, is located next to Dubai World Central's Al Maktoum International Airport and close to Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone.

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