October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

DUBAI, Oct 6: A Dubai government firm on Monday announced it will build a “new city” in the booming Gulf emirate at a projected cost of 95 billion dollars, shrugging off the global financial turmoil.

The announcement came one day after Dubai developers Nakheel said it planned to build a tower which would stand more than one kilometre tall (3,280 feet), beating the city’s own world record.

The Jumeirah Gardens development will be “an integrated city within a city,” to be built over 12 years, Meraas Development said at the opening of Cityscape Dubai 2008, a four-day international real estate fair.

Dubai already boasts the world’s tallest building, the yet to be completed Burj Dubai tower, which reached a height of 688 metres (2,257 feet) at the start of September and is still growing, according to developers Emaar.

It now boasts 160 storeys, the highest skyscraper in the world, Emaar said.

The new project will comprise business, residential and leisure facilities linked by a transportation network and including some of the city’s biggest towers, and with a large canal running through the development.

Construction of the first phase of the project has already begun, and the first buildings are due for handover in the fourth quarter of 2011, the company said.

The announcement came at the opening of the Cityscape exhibition, an annual feature on the property calendar of Dubai, a regional business and tourism hub which is in the midst of a construction frenzy and aims to rival financial centres like London and New York.

Some 1,500 firms from 150 countries are taking part in the event.—AFP