BACKGROUND
This dates back to the year 2003, when the Sheikh of Dubai started the construction of a project in the oceans by the name of the world project. In the oceans, the following project had to appear exactly as the present view of our planet, by building the continents into 300 islands, which had to have villas, hotels, beach resorts and along with these, much more luxuries that can't possibly be imagined. Also, the land of this project was titled as The Land Of Paradise, when Dubai was getting it advertised, but the point to ponder is Why? Why after the completion of the project, more than a decade has passed, and these islands, despite having all sorts of luxuries, appear as ruins in the oceans? The Sheikh of Dubai, even advertised the project through multi talented celebrities from all over the planet, but that didn't help, and that's what we'll discuss, that what possibly went wrong with the project, that got his mini dream world, to never flourish at all.
DUBAI'S FAME
It was the year 2001, and Dubai had already attracted the western tourism by opening the gates of its world-class 7-star hotel BRJ AL ARAB to the planet, and being near to the oceans, the hotel made the beaches of Dubai really famous. Thus, with the yearly rise of tourism, Dubai felt shortage of land for beach resorts, because it's coastline, which was only stretched along less than 70 km, elongating the coastline at this point seemed like a perfect option. The starting plan was such, that in Dubai, 3 artificial man-made islands had to be constructed, which would appear as palm trees from the outer space, they were namely, Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jamel Ali and Palm Dare. Thus, in 2001, firstly, construction began on Palm Jumeirah, maybe because it was the smallest among the 3, and just with its completion, the coastline of Dubai was exceeding up to 56 km, which was almost near to 80% of the existing coastline.
IDEA OF COASTLINE ELONGATION
This idea, the elongation of coastline, impressed the Dubai Sheikh so much, that before the completion of Palm Jumeirah, he ordered to begin construction on Palm Jamel Ali and Palm Dare as well, and apart from these, there was another project, that attracted the sights of the planet like a magnet. This project was launched by the respective name, The World, which had a total of 300 islands, and the design of this project, was set according to the map of the earth as such, that islands were distributed by the names of the existing countries. Thus, in 2003, construction began on The World project, which was located more than 300 km far from the beach, and had to be made by fighting the violent and aggressive waves of the oceans of Dubai. It almost seemed like this world project, would become a playground for the elite class of the planet in the future, because international actors, royal class and business tycoons challenged their fortunes through this project with their hearts. Some elites bought these mini islands for their personal use, while others played their roles by advertising the project, and here, the smallest among the islands were sold for more than 15 million dollars, and with that being said, you can now imagine the prices of the huge ones. One island after another, was sold for more than 50 million dollars, the world project of Dubai at that time was a huge success, as that of the former mega projects.
VISION OF DUBAI'S RULER
In 2008, even before the completion of the world project, more than 60% of the total islands were sold out, but the question is that, why Dubai, charged in millions for some islands in the middle of the oceans. First things first, this wasn't an easy task, because making even a tiny island in the middle of unforgiving ocean waves is really hard, whilst here, Dubai made a total of 300 islands, and each of the islands were made with such an amount of sand, that was more than enough to fill a huge cricket stadium from its top to bottom. And, if we talk about the stones that were used in the world project, then the total weight of the stones was almost equal to half a million train engines. In the making of this 9 km wide, and 6 km long project, Dubai spent an amount, equal to 14 billion dollars, in simple words, with such a huge amount of money, Dubai was able to make the likes of 7 BURJ KHALIFA buildings, or 9 BRJ AL ARAB 7-star hotels, but the Sheikh, wanted to generate income not only from the lands, but from the oceans as well, that's why he dreamed of making a paradise land in the oceans.
FAILURE OF ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS
Coming back to our main question, why is it, that more than a decade, like almost 15 years have passed, and these islands appear as ruins? One of the main reasons for the project's failure is its design, because everyone thought, that the design would be according to the map of the earth, as Dubai had advertised, But later on, the project's design appeared totally different, because the shapes of most of the islands, were totally different from the maps of the actual countries, which really disappointed those who've invested in the project. Yet, the design variation wasn't the only reason behind the failure of this project, that's because in 2008, they launched the opening of the world project, the whole of Dubai was enlightened with fireworks, but the amount that they spent on this event, became a total waste of money, because this was a time when global financial crisis had engulfed the whole world, and you know, more than 60% of the islands were sold out, but that happened before the crisis, that's why, the crisis being at its peak, not only the islands, but property rates of whole of Dubai, came crushing onto the ground.
AFTEREFFECTS OF FINANCIAL CRISIS
Due to this financial crisis, the elites, who've bought islands for their personal use, were also unable to construct anything on them. Time passed, but in the meanwhile, another problem showed itself. Empty and unsold islands slowly and gradually started to sink, and vanished in the waters, it was noticed that due to erosion, a number of islands, being made from sands, have been completely dissolved in the ocean. This news, apart from being really dangerous in it of itself, the media coverages, also played their roles in minimizing the trust of people in the islands of the world project.
CONCLUSIONS
The conclusion was such that after the end of the global financial crisis, business came back to different areas of Dubai, but then, the business class didn't challenge their fortunes on the world project, due to the fear of erosion. When the engineers and research teams investigated the cause of island erosion, another way deeper threat came into sights, along with Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jamel Ali and Palm Dare, the sands that were used in the project, were extracted from the seas of Persian Gulf, and were then dumped onto the site. The shallow waters, from where the sands were extracted, there, the water pressure increased, due to which, an immense variation in the waves of the ocean was noticed, and due to these variations, erosion was observed not only in the world islands, but in the whole coastline of Dubai. Hence, today, artificial walls have been constructed at different areas in Dubai's beaches to stop this process of erosion.
Making artificial islands, doubling and tripling its own coastline and playing games with mother nature, is now counter attacking Dubai, and these threats have hardly slammed the trust of celebrities, investors and business tycoons in the oceans of Dubai. Things really got out of hand to such an extent, that government upon seeing the situation, completely banned all sort of works on the islands, and Dubai also refunded the investors, who've invested in the project of Palm Jamel Ali, while the project of Palm Dare, was left alone in the midst of completion.
THE FORMER EXPERIENCES
Indeed, private islands have charms of their own, but the amount of luxuries, that could be enjoyed in the world project's islands, are already being experienced by tourists on Palm Jumeirah, because this is the very 1st of Dubai's safe artificial island project, which is also a huge success. Many celebrities own properties on Palm Jumeirah, which includes the most famous football player from London, the god of acting, from India, and many more having praised names. Also, it's not true that no one hasn't used their world islands, because 9 out of 300 islands are such, that have been completely developed, which includes Lebanon island, Europe island, and The Micheal Schumacher island, after the name of a formula 1 driver, have been developed. The remaining 291 islands are still empty, and are slowly and gradually sinking in the oceans. The Sheikh of Dubai is undoubtedly aware of the failures of his island projects, and he's trying to solve his mistakes, by launching new and modern projects in his dominion.
FUTURE PLANS OF DUBAI
New plans are firstly the developing of Europe islands of the world project, construction of 10 palaces in the Sweden island, 32 villas in the Germany island and construction of a total of 78 floating suites, where tourists will enjoy a unique experience of the oceans, not only above the waters, but will also enjoy a view of marine life from their underwater bedrooms. One thing is clear that Dubai isn't getting scared from small problems like she's facing, the live examples of which can be seen in the Jumeirah bay islands, museum of the future and Dubai's expo 2020. Along with these, the future mega projects of Dubai also has the construction of the world's 1st dynamic tower, which will let the tourists on their respective floors to enjoy, a live 360 degree view of Dubai from their desired heights.
Now all we need to do is wait for fate to reveal those things and facts, which are imaginable.
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