Limitless has started the construction work on the U$11 billion Arabian Canal.

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2 Jan 2008

The Dubai based property developer Limitless has started the construction work on the U$11 billion Arabian Canal. The project is said to be the largest and most complex engineering work in the Middle East since 1859, when the Suez Canal was built in Egypt.

The 150-metre wide and six-metre deep project will be finished in three years and will be able to accommodate vessels of up to 40 metres long, according to an earlier statement by Limitless.

In October Limitless said the canal would flow inland from Dubai Waterfront, passing to the east of the new Dubai World Central International Airport before turning back towards Palm Jumeirah. Spanning 20,000 hectares, the waterfront development project will stretch 33 kilometres along the inland section of the waterway.

Arabian Canal has joined Dubai's list of mega projects U$64 billion Dubailand and U$1 billion Burj Dubai, presently the world's tallest building. A cluster of tourism, leisure and entertainment projects set for completion in 2025, Dubailand will also house the world's largest transparent snow dome and a Universal Studios theme park. These projects are set to double the number of annual tourists visiting Dubai to 15 million by 2015.

Limitless CEO Saeed Ahmed Saeed has also said the project was a product of the company's strength in innovative engineering and distinctive master-planning development. "It will involve digging and moving more than one million cubic metres of earth — enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day," he said in October. "Arabian Canal will be one of the wonders of the engineering world."