Limitless plans to set dedicated power plants

(SUPPLIED)   

Limitless, the real estate arm of Dubai World, will begin infrastructure work on the $11 billion (Dh40bn) Arabian Canal by year-end, and is even contemplating setting up its own captive power plants, a senior company official said.

“We have already started trail excavations and are working on plans to develop our own energy sources. We are also looking at the option of generating our own electricity. “The development will also have its own desalination and sewage plants,” Ian Raine, Limitless development manager for Arabian Canal told the Meed Dubai Mega Projects Conference yesterday.

The major contracts for the project will be awarded in the middle of the year.“There will be six to seven contractors working on the project looking at the project size,” he added.Excavation work on the inland canal is already under way and construction is due to be completed in three to five years. Land sales will begin in next two to three months.

About 1.5 million people are expected to live along the inland canal, a 1,400-hectare development, which will be developed by Limitless, Raine said, adding the project’s overall development will possibly take 10-15 years.“We are also conducting a hydrological study so that we do not contaminate ground water,” Raine said.

The Arabian Canal will be 150 metres wide and six metres deep, and will flow inland from Dubai Waterfront, passing to the east of the new Dubai World Central International Airport before turning back towards Palm Jumeirah.

Limitless is also master planning a mixed-use development, which will be part of the Arabian Canal project. The $50 billion waterfront development will span up to 20,000 hectares and stretch for 33 kilometres along the inland section of the waterway, just east of the emirate’s new international airport.