Say Goodbye to Satwa

When the bulldozers arrived, it sent shockwaves through Satwa, one of the cheapest residential areas at the heart of Dubai. Speaking to the people living there inspires confusion: what do the green municipality numbers mean that have been spray-painted everywhere? When do they have to move out? Here Time Out attempts to show all sides of the story, from the voices of the tenants to those of the developers, as well as highlighting the parts of Satwa you should be soaking up while you can – and how to find out whether your home is set to be flattened.

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Emirates to fly to Los Angeles

Emirates, the Arab world’s biggest airline, said it will start flying to Los Angeles from September.

“Los Angeles represents Emirates’ commitment to the American market. We have evaluated the US for expansion opportunities and have carefully examined our existing services in Houston and New York- both of which have been very successful…MORE

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First two metro trains arrive in Dubai

First two trains for Dubai Metro have arrived in Dubai from Japan, Gulf News has learnt

The trains have been off-loaded from the ship at Dubai’s Port Rashid and have been moved to storage areas.

“We have achieved a crucial milestone for Dubai Metro Project with the arrival of first two trains on schedule,” said Adnan Ahmed Al Hammadi, Director of Rail Project Construction Department at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)

He told Gulf News that the trains will be used for the trail run which is set to start in late April this year on the test track between the Jebel Ali Industrial Station and the Ibn-e-Battuta Station on Shaikh Zayed Road.

“More consignments of trains will start arriving in June after we complete at least two months of trail run to check trains,” he said.

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Aldar unveils $5b Al Dana plan

Aldar Properties has revealed a detailed plan for its $5 billion commercial development, Al Dana, at the heart of the 10.5-kilometre Raha Beach development.

Work on the development is underway, with several buildings under construction.

They include four integrated buildings comprising the World Trade Centre, and the Gateway, building which was designed by celebrated architect Rafael Vinoly who designed New York’s new World Trade Centre.

“The total investment in Al Raha Beach is about $48 billion, and of that, $5 billion is the cost of Dana, which is the commercial heart of the development,” Ronald Barrot, the company’s chief executive officer, told Gulf News.

With this, total projects under construction exceed $90 billion, taking into consideration the $40 billion Yas Island development comprising 6,000 acres, and the iconic Old Market in the Abu Dhabi city centre…

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Dubai Metro Tunneling Reaches Completion

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Record Rainfall Expected

The met office warns of heavy rainfall on Wednesday morning and has advised motorists to drive carefully as more roads will be partially submerged by the continuing deluge.The rain in Dubai will surpass the highest recorded over the years of  81.9mm in January, according to duty forecaster Dr S.K. Gupta.  

Since Monday evening the skies have dumped 52mm of rain on Dubai and 34.6mm more was recorded since 4am and 1pm on Tuesday. “This could well be the rainiest January in recorded history,” he said. 

“We have had dry spells over the past couple of years and this is good news.”

The reason for the heavy rain is due to the low pressure system, which is parked over the emirates, and adding to that is a trough, a depression, which has accentuated the unstable weather, says the forecaster…MORE

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Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Etisalat: Orkut.com banned in the UAE

Controversial website Orkut.com has been blocked in the UAE after Gulf News highlighted the concerns of readers that it contains sexually explicit material.

Etisalat banned the site yesterday on the orders of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

As reported in Gulf News in recent days, some wanted Orkut banned because they feared people were using the site to find sexual partners.

“After the TRA was contacted by Gulf News, they went into this site and found out that it should be blocked,” an official TRA spokesman told Gulf News.

“Immediately they issued a formal letter to the Internet Service Providers in the UAE to block this site.” The letter was sent to Etisalat, the UAE’s main Internet Service Provider, by the TRA’s Director of Technical Affairs, Mohammad Geyath.

Orkut had been blocked before in the UAE, and was later unblocked after many users complained. The TRA spokesman said the TRA had never ordered that unblocking… SOURCE

I am sometimes amazed at how myopic people can be (UAE, or

anywhere). You will have people complaining about sites like Orkut,

but they will never look outside their own backdoor at the exploited

workers, or the sextrade going on in the city below.

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Congestion (You Better Believe It): Dubai overtakes Cairo

Dubai The city has the most congested roads in the Arab world, with people spending an average of one hour and 45 minutes daily commuting between home and work, a survey of 14 majors cities showed.

… MORE

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Just Say No to ‘Salik’: Dubai’s Toll System

Salik, no sooner do I here the sound of that word and I get hackles.  For those of you who do not know, Salik is Dubai’s attempt to limit traffic congestion by imposing tolls.  The bad part of this idea comes-in when you realize that it will do nothing but raise revenue for Dubai RTA.  Currently, there are very few alternatives to traveling Sheikh Zayed road.  The Metro is years from completion.  Alternative routes all have some construction and/or bottlenecks. In fact, Sheikh Zayed Rd. was one of the most complete routes in all of Dubai.  Now, you will have to pay to use it.

Living in Sharajah I have the luxury of not driving on Shk. Zayed Rd.. And, until Dubai does something different about transport, I and my family will not use the Salik system.  If we MUST go to Dubai, we will use the alternate routes.

This, of course, is going to majorly affect those malls and businesses (Mall of the Emirates, Mazaya Center, Wafi City) that rely on the easy access to Shk. Zayed to get customers into their stores.  Out of town business will be affected in a major way.

It’s time RTA stopped listening to their British and British-trained road engineers!  They are quickly turning Dubai into a copy of London’s transit system.  Unfortunately, we all know what that is like!

Until that happens, I (and my family) will take our business elsewhere.

Oh, and citizens of Dubai… enjoy the new traffic jams created by the system.

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Rain in Al Ain brings respite from heat

A brief spell of rain accompanied by thunder in Al Ain yesterday sent the mercury dipping by 9 degrees on the scale, much to the delight of residents who flocked to parks and gardens. The showers lasted for about 20 minutes.

The weatherman said that such showers are normally received in late June, July and August.

With skies remaining partly cloudy late afternoon and in the evening, another spell was expected overnight.

The temperature in Al Ain yesterday dropped from 42 to 31 degrees Celsius, the Met office said, adding that the wind blew at 15 kilometres per hour (kmph) while maximum humidity was recorded at 75 per cent.

Similar conditions have been forecast for today, with humid weather at night with haze and mist in some areas early in the morning, the Met office said.

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