Saudi Arabia plans $67 billion city

[Bengal_Tiger]

*Egypt is building a solar powered capital.

* Bangladesh is building a metrol rail, massive bridge to connect the country and other major infrastructure projects.

*Saudis are planning to build a $67 billion city for 2 million people.

This is also good news for other Muslim countries as the labour hired to construct this city will lead to many jobs and money.

Well done to Saudi Arabia.





Saudi Arabia unveils design for £67BILLION megacity the size of Washington DC to be built in the middle of the desert


The King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) will be home to two million people in total.

Metropolis is costing £67 billion and will cover 70 square miles, just 60 miles away from capital Jeddah

15 per cent is finished and it's hoped the city will help diversify the country

By INDIA STURGIS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 17:02, 20 March 2015 | UPDATED: 17:03, 20 March 2015


Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with plans to complete building work on a new megacity in the desert.

The King Abdullah Economic City, or KAEC (pronounced 'cake'), will be slightly larger than Washington DC and home to approximately two million residents.
Covering 70 square miles, the metropolis is costing £67 billion ($100 billion) and lies 100km from Jeddah, the commercial hub of the kingdom, near the Red Sea.

The late king had pinned his hopes for his country's future on the new-build, although at the moment it resembles a dusty building site dotted with cranes and work is not likely to be completed for ten years, at least.

So far 15 per cent has been built, as public facilities and residential areas are still under construction. Plans include a port, industrial complex, a financial island, beach facilities and residential neighbourhoods.


KAEC is one of four new cities being built to diversify an economy that is overly dependent on oil. Already it has its own website showing plans, maps and including details on how to invest.

Fadi Al-Rasheed, the managing director of Emaar Economic City, the publicly traded Saudi company that runs the entire KAEC project, told the BBC:
Only 15 per cent has been developed, as public facilities and residential areas are still under construction

'We're building with the 65 per cent of the population who are under 30 in mind,' he explains. 'And we have almost 200,000 Saudis studying abroad. Inevitably they are going to change things when they come back.'
Given that more women than men graduate from university, it is likely the Saudi landscape will shift over the coming years in more ways that one.
Cranes stand beside new high rise buildings under construction in the King Abdullah financial district of Riyadh

There are 90 km of roads in use in KAEC but, under present deeply held religious beliefs prohibiting it, no women in the country are able to drive on them.

The city's future hinges on many things including the complex relationships between health, education, housing and employment requirements and infrastructure.

It will also open up transport links around the kingdom and internationally.

'We aim to create one of the world's largest ports,' Rayan Bukhari, a young manager at the King Abdullah port told the BBC.

'We're not competing with Jeddah's Islamic port - but we are going to take business away from Jebel Ali in Dubai. That's because of our quicker, more automated offloading and customs procedure.'

'Freight arriving at the port will be taken directly to the capital via the new land bridge,' he says, 'At the moment lots of products destined for Riyadh are shipped to Dubai, but that will change. They'll be shipped here as it is cheaper - and can be delivered more quickly within the Kingdom.'

KAEC is also expected to become an important tourist stopover for pilgrims, aided by the fact Mecca and Medina are on the high speed train network that links KAEC with the two holy cities.

At the moment Mecca is one hour and twenty minutes drive away and Medina is three hours by car.

The Haramain train station will open at the end of this year and has been designed by British architect Norman Foster, also the man behind London's 'Gerkin' skyscraper and New York's Hearst Tower.

The station will provide acceleration to area's developmental plan and will reduce the journey to Jeddah to 30 minutes.The megaproject on KAEC was announced in 2005.

The project is largely privately funded and the government has set up an Economic Cities Authority overseeing the four megacities able to deal swiftly with every licence, construction permit and approval needed.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/tr...#ixzz3UxApccbZ



[MENTION=1753]Manzareh[/MENTION] [MENTION=5723]Kushan Prince[/MENTION]

You guys might have the chance to go there and do some shopping (especially if you're married) and eat some halal fried chicken the next time you go umrah!

[Bengal_Tiger]

15% of the city has been built.



President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Dr Ashraf Ghani in Medina, Hejaz recently.







This KAEC is clearly going to challenge Dubai.



Dubai.

[HalloIsBack]

wait i cannot visit dubai or other cities of saudi-arabia because im not maried?

well who is interested in fake nikkah with me

[Kushan Prince]

I feel as if they are trying to compete with Dubai. Still a small visit wouldn't hurt!

[Bengal_Tiger]

I feel as if they are trying to compete with Dubai. Still a small visit wouldn't hurt!

One thing I did read about this project is that this city will have wide roads.

Saudis tend to base everything on the American model so US cities tend to be places where if you want anything you have to do it by car.

That's OK, but...

it requires petrol.

The whole point of a city like this is to reduce Saudi reliance on petrol i.e. selling it, not increasing the need for it or its usage.

Nevertheless a good idea.

I wonder what their shopping malls will be like.

[HalloIsBack]

if you make hagg or umrah you do it for yourself and for god but not for shopping
this is one of the points islamists critisize saudi for but they are also money-grubbing

[Zarim]

Maybe these 'Muslim' leaders could build a city of 60 Billion dollars and give a billion each to war-ravaged cities where their fellow muslims live: Gaza, Aleppo, Homs, Kabul, Mosul, Baghdad are just a few that come to mind.

[Khostai]

Maybe these 'Muslim' leaders could build a city of 60 Billion dollars and give a billion each to war-ravaged cities where their fellow muslims live: Gaza, Aleppo, Homs, Kabul, Mosul, Baghdad are just a few that come to mind.

That would be a waste of money, becuase lets be honest give one billion to Kabul after 10 years you will see not even one proper road. If you want to give money you should see something back from it.

[Zarim]

That would be a waste of money, becuase lets be honest give one billion to Kabul after 10 years you will see not even one proper road. If you want to give money you should see something back from it.

They have given billions to build madrassahs in order to turn our population into brainless zombies that are ready to kill anyone who is not 'Islamic' enough. Surely asking them to give a billion for road construction is not too much to ask? And even in Afghanistan, with all its corruption, much progress was booked in the years after the Taliban. But who am I kidding. All the rich Arabs are concerned with is funding extremists and flying in their Russian 'entertainers' on private jets. That's all they're good for. They build extravagant palaces, whilst their fellow muslim brothers and sisters live in ruins. And in the rare cases that they give money, in 9 out of 10 cases it's for the construction of yet another mosque. And let's be honest, if there is one thing there is no shortage of in the Muslim world, it's mosques.

[Bengal_Tiger]

They have given billions to build madrassahs in order to turn our population into brainless zombies that are ready to kill anyone who is not 'Islamic' enough. Surely asking them to give a billion for road construction is not too much to ask? And even in Afghanistan, with all its corruption, much progress was booked in the years after the Taliban. But who am I kidding. All the rich Arabs are concerned with is funding extremists and flying in their Russian 'entertainers' on private jets. That's all they're good for. They build extravagant palaces, whilst their fellow muslim brothers and sisters live in ruins. And in the rare cases that they give money, in 9 out of 10 cases it's for the construction of yet another mosque. And let's be honest, if there is one thing there is no shortage of in the Muslim world, it's mosques.

1. Saudi Arabia is essentially built upon a pact between the ruling Al-Saud tribe and the Wahab family and religious clerics.

The state-sponsored clergy preach obedience to the government and they are also a very important lobby who cannot be disregarded (despite the clamour for liberalization for many younger Saudis which is only increasing with tens of thousands going to the west for education).

To keep this pillar of the establishment happy they are allowed to sponsor the export of Islam (both their Salafi version of it and a less sectarian form too) including in other Muslim countries e.g. Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc.



2. The Saudis to be honest despite being guardians of the holy sites have no (from a secular perspective) responsibility to fund foreigners who happen to be Muslim.

They are however generous donators to charitable causes apart from the controversial stuff e.g. funding religious conservatives.

They are just another nation-state whose prime responsibility is to their citizens. I am just saying that is the actual reality.

That doesn't mean you don't have a valid point about how Saudi funding has contributed to the rise of extremists that are destabilizing the Muslim world be it in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Pakistan etc. I am just trying to say is that just because Saudis do not spend their oil money on other nations does not make them any greedier or self-indulgent than other races who all do the same e.g. western states which spend £10 million on football players regularly.


3. The Saudis have been silly.

You can't blame them when their administration has been filled by idiots like Ali Al-Ghamdi and Yzd Khalifa, this is what they should have done from the 1970s onwards.

- Sponsored mass education of their middle class (which they are only doing now) in western and other top quality universities to produce quality engineers, doctors, biologists, etc

- Set up a national investment fund (things which both Norway and Algeria have being oil rich and gas rich states).

Using this fund to start up Saudi construction companies, Saudi IT companies, Saudi defence companies, Saudi education companies etc.

These companies would then invest (I use the word invest rather than donate) in Muslim countries where they would build roads, buildings in Kabul for example and get a profit and also help the development of Afghanistan.

A win-win with Saudis making money and Afghans developing their country.

It is in fact the Turks that are doing this sort of thing.

The Saudis however had far more money and should have been able to do this.


Anyway Saudi Arabia is just another nation-state in the Muslim world like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey etc whose first responsibility is to its own people and if it does help others it should ideally be done in a win-win situation.

[Zarim]

1.

To keep this pillar of the establishment happy they are allowed to sponsor the export of Islam (both their Salafi version of it and a less sectarian form too) including in other Muslim countries e.g. Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc.

I just find it ironic that the corrupt Saudis try to export 'Islam' to us. Maybe they should start at home first. It is simply yet another corrupt greedy filthy nation-state, only concerned with their own interest and couldn't care less about the plight of millions of their fellow Muslims around the world.