Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s new metro system will ease traffic congestion during the annual Haj pilgrimage, a top official has said.

* Image Credit: EPA * Pilgrims using the new Makkah Metro. The capacity of the Makkah metro will be 70,000 to 80,000 persons per hour in one direction.

The Haramain High Speed Rail project, which is under construction, will be a 449.2km high-speed inter-city system linking Madinah and Makkah.

Each year three million to four million pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Haj.

During the Haj around two million people come from abroad by air and an estimated one million come by road.

During this period, Makkah, which has a resident population of 1.7 million, experiences high congestion from the 70,000 vehicles that transport the pilgrims between the sites of the pilgrimage.

“The number of pilgrims is increasing. We have about 70,000 buses moving between [three holy places].

“It’s very difficult to transport more than three million pilgrims in a very limited time and space,” said Salim Al Bosta of the Central Directorate for Development of Projects at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

“The target group of the metro system will be the pilgrims from inside the country, from the Gulf states and pilgrims coming by land by bus,” he added.

Shuttle transport from Arafat to Muzdalifah, which is about 12km, can take six to eight hours, and in some cases up to 10 hours because of the congestion. More info

Dubai: The city is extending itself to the Dubai Outlet Mall, literally. If there were just a few scattered villas within its immediate neighbourhood when the mall opened in 2007, it’s looking a lot more crowded these days.

* Image Credit: Oliver Clarke/ Gulf News * Vishal Mahajan, director of Dubai Outlet Mall, says the shopping destination located off the Dubai-Al Ain road could have a hypermarket in the future keeping in mind the growing resident base in the vicinity.

The Dubai Silicon Oasis has emerged as a bustling commercial and residential hub, while The Villa has come on nicely as a community. Then there are the apartment blocks forming the Skycourts cluster.

In effect, all of this is building up the catchment area that Dubai Outlet Mall can cater to. Currently, the catchment areas contribute about 10 to 15 per cent of visitor traffic to the mall. Is it then time for the promoters to consider going in for an expansion?

“We are over 92 per cent leased against the 83 per cent we had at the same time last year,” said Vishal Mahajan, director. “We have always maintained that the concept of an outlet mall is a necessity for a mature retailer rather than the opening of another store.

“This way they get to support their mainstream shops through the cycle of merchandise as well giving customers the benefit of discounts.”

Some time this year, the promoters will decide when and how an expansion should take shape. In its original masterplan, the mall would be the core of a much wider development that would include a hotel, officers and residential components.

The land is under the ownership of the Al Ahli Holding Group, who also developed the mall.

“Looking at future retailer demand, we could consider adding to the existing mall in parts rather than go in for a full-scale development,” said Mahajan. “It doesn’t make sense to build a mall of 2 to 3 million square feet for very little demand. More info

Dubai: The opening of 11 new plants, including eight serving the Dubai Metro Green Line, boosted profits last year at the National Central Cooling Company, also known as Tabreed.

Dubai Metro

The Dubai-listed utilities firm said net income advanced to Dh182.7 million ($50 million) from Dh136.8 million in 2010, an increase of 34 per cent. The company’s stock price fell 0.55 per cent to 54 fils per share at the close yesterday on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

Tabreed’s core business involves chilling water at its plants, which is in turn used to cool buildings and other infrastructure projects. The 11 new plants increased the firm’s total connected capacity in the UAE to 555,181 refrigeration tonnes.

“Tabreed’s performance was driven by its core chilled water division, which aggressively fuelled the company’s bottom line,” said Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments.

Sustained rally

“The stock saw some profit taking but that is not a surprise given the market has been on a sustained rally; the DFM was up six per cent for the month of January,” he added.

Tabreed’s chilled water division saw revenues increase 25 per cent to Dh943.8 million while gross profit rose 27 per cent to Dh406 million.

Group revenue for the year increased by 9 per cent to Dh1.1 billion. More info

Dubai Shopping Festival is a leader in setting world records, having established more than 50 in its 16-year history. These records have raised the profile of the DSF and Dubai among the international community. Following is a list of the world records created during the last 16 editions of the DSF, most of which have been endorsed by Guinness World Records.

The Largest entry. Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

Records, as they say, are made to be broken. However, some records stand too high and others just stare at them in awe, let alone break them. Dubai — the city of superlatives — appears to be a place that takes its records very high — longest, largest or farthest — and also very seriously. That’s why most of its records still stand.

A world record is usually the best global performance recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport.

While taking account of Dubai’s world record feats, one loses count. It took a while to gather the information, even for the Guinness World Records — the entity that keeps track of all records, to fathom the depth of the matter. More info

In costume and out to entertain, artists get plenty of opportunity to do what they do best during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). There are clowns, magicians, stage actors and actresses… And then there are dancers like Dubai resident Monisha Sukumar.

* Image Credit: Florence Pia G. Yu/Gulf News * Indian classical dancers perform at a Dubai Shopping Festival event in Mercato, Dubai.

The 15-year-old has been one of the weekend entertainment acts at the Mercato Mall this DSF, performing Indian classical dance with a group of four other girls. On stage, they exude confidence, poise and grace with the flick of a finger, a pirouette, a tilt of the head, a tiptoe or a shuffle.

“I feel that dance is a beautiful language that communicates to all kinds of people,” Sukumar told Gulf News after her performance on Saturday. “I feel extremely happy that I am able to convey what I want as an artist to the people around me.”

The teen specialises in the Pandanallur art of dance, which she says stresses on hand gestures and form. “I have been taking dance lessons since I was 10 years old. When I was a small kid, I often went in front of the mirror and tried different poses. Then my mum saw me and decided to enroll me in dance class,” she said.

She has been performing for DSF, at the Global Village and in various events in Dubai.

When she is not performing at social events, she shares her talent to charitable causes; dancing for the Help Age India Charitable Trust, The Karunai Villa for special children in Chennai, the Bala Mandir Orphanage, and at an event to raise funds for Haiti. More info

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Executive Council has approved funding for a metro and light-rail transit system, the new Abu Dhabi-Dubai road and the Mafraq-Ghuwaifat road to the Saudi border, a spokesman for the Department of Transport said.

Abu Dhabi Metro

Further details about the projects’ budgets, designs and completion dates will be released soon, according to the spokesman.

The Abu Dhabi Metro, which will run approximately 131km and be supported by tram and bus feeder, is set to be operational by 2016-17.

Besides serving the projected increase in the capital’s population and relieving congestion, the metro will mainly connect the proposed Central Business District with Sowwah Island, Reem Island, Saadiyat Island, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi International Airport and Masdar, the Capital City District, Emerald Gateway, Zayed Sports City and Adnec.

Most of the proposed network is expected to be underground.

The monorail track (which is part of the metro project) is expected to be 31km long. Each station is expected to handle 1,000 commuters. The monorail might also include 15 two-coach trains and five-minute intervals between each service train and another.

Abu Dhabi Metro would be linked to the Dubai Metro and other cities in the UAE and to other GCC states. More info

Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has launched ‘Award for Scientific Rresearch’ to encourage its employees to participate in educational and research activities.

The award was also to help the staff effectively contribute towards promoting the objectives of the RTA.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, who said on Saturday the award scheme was designed to recognise the talents of gifted employees and invest their potential in advancing RTA business processes. The scheme was also a bid to bolster the organisation’s efforts in knowledge management.

The RTA has budgeted prizes for the winning research project.

The author of the best research will get a cheque of Dh20,000 along with a certificate of appreciation. The runner-up will walk away with prize money of Dh15,000 and a certificate and the third place will get Dh10,000 and a certificate of appreciation.

Writers of the best 10 researches will be given Dh3,000 each.

The award will be held every year.

Dubai: Authorities will construct as many as 3,000 bicycle parking spaces for Dubai Metro users, by the first quarter of this year, it was announced yesterday.

* Image Credit: Pankaj Sharma/Gulf News * The RTA is encouraging the use of bicycles with the construction of parking spaces at Dubai Metro stations. The move also aims to avoid unruly and haphazard parking of bicycles near the stations, damaging public property.

The move comes in a bid to avoid unruly parking of bicycles such as by tying them to trees, light poles or traffic signals, Maitha Bin Udai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said yesterday.

“Such practices inflict damage to public property, block visibility for motorists and road users, and distort the general appearance of neighbourhoods, particularly in tourist areas,” she said.

Parking spaces for bicycles will be constructed near stations along both Red and Green Lines. The parking spaces have been designed in a way that makes them accessible and easy to use, according to the RTA. The decision is a step forward in enhancing integrated public transport systems in Dubai, she said.

Promoting use

Maitha urged residents to use bicycles, particularly for short trips, as they help ease heavy usage of vehicles and thereby reduce environmental pollution.

“The project comprises the construction of about 3,000 bike stands near the Metro stations. Phase 1 of the project was completed earlier, with 212 stands built at eight stations on the Red Line,” she said.

These include 96 parking spaces at Al Rashidiya Station, 16 at Khalid Bin Al Waleed Station, 32 at Jafliyah Station, 16 at Financial Centre, 32 at Mall of the Emirates Station, 16 at Ibn Battuta Station, and about four stands at Nakheel Station.

“RTA has completed the construction of bases for about 1,200 new stands on the Red Line stations and has planned to complete them by the first quarter of this year.” Maitha added. Phase 2 of the project, which involves construction of bases for about 1,100 parking spaces on Green Line stations, will begin later.

In future, all Metro stations will be integrated with dedicated cycling tracks, said Nasser Abu Shehab, Director of Strategic Planning, at RTA’s Strategy and Corporate Governance Sector. More info

Dubai: The growth of Dubai’s retail industry is reliant on tourists to boost footfall, analysts at Jones Lang Lasalle say.

* Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News * Shoppers taking advantage of DSF promotions at Dubai Mall. Hotels located next to shopping malls are enjoying a boost in occupancy.

“Retail needs high footfall to be successful so the higher the levels of footfall when you’re talking about tourism causes a growth in retail. You need more tourism to create more jobs, more sales and that’s what’s happening in Dubai,” said David Macadam, head of retail at Jones Lang Lasalle.

The 17th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival is playing a big role in boosting the city’s international shopping footfall. According to the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE), retail, travel and hospitality spending in 2011 in Dubai contributed a total of Dh15.1 billion to the UAE economy. Of that, DEPE figures show that Dh5.9 billion was spent by regional and international visitors.

According to Leila Suhail, CEO of DEPE, 4 million visits were made to the festival in 2011. Out of that, 884,660 were regional and international visitors coming mostly from India, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

“The Dubai Shopping Festival plays a major role in supporting the economy of Dubai and boosting it in various sectors,” said Suhail.

China factor

Georges Mousa, chairman of tour operator Planet Group, which specialises in bringing in tourists from China, said he’s expecting an influx of Chinese tourists between yesterday until the first week of February partly because of the Chinese New Year and partly because of DSF. “We are expecting around 2,500 tourists during this per-iod for our tour operator group. We are already enjoying an increase of 30-40 per cent compared to 2011,” said Mousa. More info

Retail industry gets boost from surge in tourism

DSF playing big role in increasing international shopping footfall

• By Aya Lowe, Staff Reporter
• Published: 00:00 January 23, 2012
• 

• Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News
• Shoppers taking advantage of DSF promotions at Dubai Mall. Hotels located next to shopping malls are enjoying a boost in occupancy.

Dubai: The growth of Dubai’s retail industry is reliant on tourists to boost footfall, analysts at Jones Lang Lasalle say.

“Retail needs high footfall to be successful so the higher the levels of footfall when you’re talking about tourism causes a growth in retail. You need more tourism to create more jobs, more sales and that’s what’s happening in Dubai,” said David Macadam, head of retail at Jones Lang Lasalle.

The 17th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival is playing a big role in boosting the city’s international shopping footfall. According to the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE), retail, travel and hospitality spending in 2011 in Dubai contributed a total of Dh15.1 billion to the UAE economy. Of that, DEPE figures show that Dh5.9 billion was spent by regional and international visitors.

According to Leila Suhail, CEO of DEPE, 4 million visits were made to the festival in 2011. Out of that, 884,660 were regional and international visitors coming mostly from India, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

“The Dubai Shopping Festival plays a major role in supporting the economy of Dubai and boosting it in various sectors,” said Suhail.

China factor

Georges Mousa, chairman of tour operator Planet Group, which specialises in bringing in tourists from China, said he’s expecting an influx of Chinese tourists between yesterday until the first week of February partly because of the Chinese New Year and partly because of DSF. “We are expecting around 2,500 tourists during this per-iod for our tour operator group. We are already enjoying an increase of 30-40 per cent compared to 2011,” said Mousa.

Dubai: 70 per cent Off…Bundle Offers…. Cash Back Vouchers… Amazingly Low Prices…

* Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/XPRESS * With retailers across the board trying to outdo each other by offering bigger promotions and discounts, customers are certainly spoilt for choice. Photo for illustrative purposes only.

In a city where sales and promotions are a year-long affair, you could be forgiven for dismissing the Dubai Shopping Festival as just another sales season. And if you are blasé about the bargains, it’s not your fault. DSF comes right after Christmas and New Year when you could still be suffering from sales fatigue.

Make no mistake. With 6,000 retail outlets and dozens of malls offering discount sales up to 75 per cent, nothing comes even remotely close to DSF. It’s the mother of all sales events.

Rahul Saxena, Head of Marketing at Babyshop, said, “DSF is the first shopping festival of its scale in the region and definitely holds an advantage. It is a period when most retailers across categories try very hard to attract customers, and coming right after the festive season, the offer has to be compelling enough to get a fair share of the wallet. The festivities and events held across the city ensure that shoppers keep coming back to the malls and give retailers a better opportunity to sell.”

The figures say it all. Just this week, Global Village reported a record 500,000 shoppers in the first 10 days of the sale. Around 100,000 visited the festival on Friday alone. A sizeable chunk of the teeming crowds at malls like Dubai Mall – which became the world’s most visited shopping destination by welcoming more than 54 million visitors in 2011 ahead of even New York and Las Vegas – is also clocked in during this period. Most malls report a 20-30 per cent increase in footfall during DSF, with sales of individual brands going up by 20 per cent.

Anchor retailers or the main stores do particularly well, according to Neelesh Bhatnagar, Director, Oasis Centre. “Anchor retailers at malls of our size wield an especially strong pull factor during this period. Owing to the lucrative shopping experience offered during the festival, Oasis Centre records a jump of over 20 per cent in footfall year after year,” said Bhatnagar. More info