THE shiny emirate’s ambitions were the talk of ATM, with the announcement of Dubai World Central, a multi-phase development centred around the world’s largest international airport.
Set to be twice the size of Hong Kong at 140sqkm, the self-sustaining development is being built at Jebel Ali, some 40 kilometres south of Dubai city centre.
Formerly called Jebel Ali Airport City, it includes Dubai World Central International Airport (JXB) – which when complete will be the world’s largest with a capacity equal to that currently of Chicago’s O’Hare and London’s Heathrow – and a cluster of specialised zones. Dubai World Central will be a new city where eventually some 750,000 people will live and work.
It is designed to support Dubai’s aviation, tourism, commercial and logistics requirements until 2050 and infr astructure costs alone will run to $33 billion. The airport itself, with six parallel runways all of 4.5 kilometres in length and a 92m-high control tower, will be the world’s largest passenger and cargo hub with a design capacity of over 12 million tonnes of cargo a year and in excess of 120 million passengers annually and capable of handling all new generation aircraft, including the A380 superjumbo.
Dubai World Central also creates the world’s first truly integrated multi-modal logistics platform with all transportation modes, logistics and value-added services, such as product manufacturing and assembly in a single-bonded free zone environment made up of Dubai Logistics City, Dubai World Central International Airport and Jebel Ali Port. Other components include residential and commercial zones, a golf course resort and more.
JXB will be linked to the existing, award-winning Dubai International Airport (DXB) via an express rail system.