New Dubai island to house world's largest ferris wheel

A new island is being reclaimed off the Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) coastline in Dubai, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

The reclamation work has been on for over a month now with industry sources referring to it as Meraas Holding’s Dh6 billion 'Bluewaters Island'.

The master developer has not yet responded to questions sent by Emirates 24|7.

Bluewaters Island, a mixed-use development, is set to be one of the largest tourist hotspots in the world. It will feature a demarcated retail, residential, hospitality and entertainment zones and will house Dubai Eye, the world’s largest Ferris wheel.

In February, Meraas said construction on the project, which will be built near JBR, would commence in April, while construction for Dubai Eye was planned in the second quarter of the year.

Van Oord, a Dutch contracting company that specialises in dredging and land reclamation, said in February that it has been awarded the contract to build an island, which it has called “Jumana Island”.

The company, however, did not confirm on whether it was working on the Bluewaters Island project.

Work on the Jumana Island project has started, Van Oord, had said, adding completion is scheduled for the end of 2013. The contract is worth Dh491 million. The island will be linked to the main land (Jumeirah Road) through a 300-metre-long bridge.

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that a successful bid for the World Expo 2020 would see acceleration in the pace of the implementation of many of the recently announced megaprojects in Dubai.

“Dubai aims to build on its successes in becoming a services hub for the wider region and recently announced plans for several megaprojects in real estate and tourism, notably including Mohammed bin Rashid City,” the IMF said in its new report.

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