The Palm Jumeirah Island is one of the emerging landmarks in Dubai these days. The sheer cost, elegance and the size of this new development is unprecedented and mind-boggling. However, there were fears in the minds of the city planners earlier that the proposed township would prove out to be a fragmented assembly of living sites unlike what it should ideally have been as a model development. There were hardly any means for the people to move around from one living block to another and the whole plan stood divided into several localized developments.
The revised Palm Jumeirah master plan takes care of this concern however, and looks forward at developing the trunk into a uniting feature. The proposal speaks of a 7.8-hectare park along the trunk for accomplishing this requirement, which will have a large water element with pools and other recreational facilities around. This will provide an improvised architectural and scenic balance to the waterfront leisure facilities, and let the masses have a valuable community space for their daily use. The fragmented living blocks will get to have an easy access to each other through this latest green area.
The Palm Jumeirah Island is one of the world’s three largest man-made islands currently being developed along Dubai’s coast; the other two being Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira across the same sea front. Each of these are being built in the shape of a date palm tree, consisting of a trunk, a crown with several fronds and the surrounding crescent for the role of a breakwater. The Palm Jumeirah development will house at least 25 world-renowned hotel brands, and a significant number of residential facilities. It will have themed boutique hotels, consumer friendly retail outlets, three types of villas, beach apartments, marinas, cafes and restaurants.
Nakheel, a leading construction giant from the UAE, is developing palm islands, including the one in Jumeirah. They will increase Dubai’s shoreline by an impressive margin of 520 km and cost billions in amount. The land reclamation for the Palm Jumeirah island itself cost around $12.3 billion, and required making use of 94 million cubic meters of sand and 7 million tons of natural rock, enough to create a two and half meters high wall circling the earth three times around. The island was gradually constructed upon a 10.5-meter deep seabed and stretched 3 meters above the sea level. Up to 40,000 workers, mostly hailing from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, have been pressed into constructing this landmark. A monorail is also being planned at the island, which will ferry up to 3,000 people each hour once fully commissioned.
Keeping in mind Dubai’s rising tourism stakes, the Palm Islands are bound to generate tremendous interest and economic growth. Unlike the other commercial ventures across this tiny emirate, the Palms are solely aimed at providing their clientele with world-class leisure amenities. With the trunk of Palm Jumeirah now being developed into a themed park, the outside world is bound to look at this tourist attraction with more vigor. Like any other successful urban development across the globe, the Palm Jumeirah Beach is also set now to win many laurels.