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Dh15.8b housing loans, projects for Abu Dhabi
Dh15.8b housing loans, projects for Abu Dhabi (Wam) / 26 September 2013 The Abu Dhabi Executive Council, at a meeting chaired by Gen Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Council, on Wednesday approved housing loans and infrastrucrure projects worth Dh15.8 billion. The Council adopted a number of development projects related to infrastructure and social development sectors, and endorsed a new batch of housing loans for citizens. It also discussed advancing work at a number of projects in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, including the nuclear energy project, stressing the importance of such projects and their role in adopting efficient solutions for clean energy. General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed addressing the Abu Dhabi Executive Council meeting on Wednesday as Shaikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor, looks on. — Wam — Dh3.1billion payment of housing loans for 1554 beneficiaries: The Council decided to allocate Dh3.1 billion as a new installment of housing loans for 1,554 beneficiaries. The decision clearly illustrates the keenness of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to secure a social environment with high life quality to all citizens. This would help develop a stable upbringing of individuals and their families and furthermore strengthen social cohesion, which is very essential for the development and progress of all nations. The new loans will benefit 689 beneficiaries from Abu Dhabi, 756 from the Eastern Region and 109 beneficiaries from the Western Region. Names of the beneficiaries will be announced later on and they will be notified about the procedures of imbursement in a way that serves their free choice of the designs of their new houses or they may complete their houses that are still under construction. Dh4.3 billion for Al Ain New Hospital Project: As part of the government efforts to improve health and medical services in Al Ain, the Council approved Dh4.3 billion to fund Al Ain new hospital project. Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) has been assigned to conclude an agreement with a contractor to carry out the project. Upon completion, the hospital will help provide fully integrated medical services and enhance health safety. Besides, it will upgrade the emirate’s status as a scientific hub with distinguished health and social services that could match what we can see in the developed countries. The new hospital will accommodate 719 beds distributed for general medicine, surgery, children’s ward, maternity, ICU, medical rehabilitation, VIP patients and royal suites. It will also include 104 advanced specialized clinics, 17 units for X-ray, CT Scan and MRI techniques as well as 22 specialised units for endoscopy diagnosis. Dh5.2billion for implementing 1st, 3rd and 4th stages of Al Mafraq-Al Ghuwaifat road project: During the meeting, the Council designated the Department of Transport (DoT) to conclude agreements with contractors to implement the first, third and fourth sections of the 248km-long Al Mafraq-Al Ghuwaifat Road Development Project with a total cost of Dh5.291 billion. This includes constructing 15 upper intersections and providing the road with electricity posts. The project is one of the initiatives of the DoT’s strategic plan designed to improve the transport sector and enable it work more efficiently to better serve the economy of the Emirate. Meanwhile, the project will help reduce car accidents, improve road safety, accommodate traffic curtail traffic jams and shorten travel time when travelling to the Western Region or Saudi Arabia. The DoT has already completed the second part of the project, the 80km-long Al Ruwais Road. Sections A &B of Abu Dhabi-Dubai Road Project: The Council also assigned the DoT to reach agreements with contractors to carry out construction work of sections A and B of Abu Dhabi-Dubai Highway Road Project with a total cost of Dh1.966 billion. The 62km two-way road project with four lanes for each direction extends from Seeh She’ib area to Suwaihan Road. It includes six intersections, three for each section, in addition to bridges designed to protect the gas pipelines. High-voltage cables that intersects with the road track will also be removed. Lighting work and other relevant facilities are included in the project. The project is seen as an additional strategic road linking Abu Dhabi Emirate with Dubai and the northern emirates. It will ease traffic congestion along the current Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway. The new road will also connect Khalifa Port with the industrial zone area and serve the other industrial areas and the emerging populated areas and housing projects particularly in Al Falah area. Dh810 million to finance a power generation linkage project: The Council decided to forward an Dh810 million project to contractors who will import, install and modify air cables used to link the newly established power generation stations with other stations in the area. The project aims to transport the generated electricity from the new station to other areas to meet the increasing demand on electricity as a result of the population growth and economic and urban development in the emirate particularly in the Western Region. Dh132 million allocated for sewage water treatment plant project in Al Ruwais: The Council approved a project to set up a sewage water treatment plant in Al Ruwais (Western Region) with a total cost of Dh132 million. Abu Dhabi Sewage Services Company was assigned by the council to conclude a contract with a company to execute the project. The new plant aims to meet demands resulting from the ongoing expansion in industrial zones in Al Ruwais. It goes in line with the development plans of the Higher Foundation for Specialized Economic Zones and the labour towns in Al Ruwais. The project includes the establishment of a wastewater reclamation plant with a capacity of 15000 cubic metre a day. There will be also a receiving station which could receive 16 tanks and a 10km water pumping pipeline to convey treated water to the forest areas reservoirs in Ghayathy area. The new plant takes into account any environmental damages as it is provided with a system to treat bad scents at all stages and another system for monitoring. Continue reading
Pakistan quake island unlikely to last: Experts
Pakistan quake island unlikely to last: Experts (AFP) / 25 September 2013 A small island created in the Arabian Sea by the huge earthquake that hit southwest Pakistan has fascinated locals but experts say it is unlikely to last long. The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday in Baluchistan’s remote Awaran district, killing more than 200 people and affecting hundreds of thousands. Off the coastline near the port of Gwadar, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the epicentre, locals were astonished to see a new piece of land surface from the waves. “It is not a small thing, but a huge thing which has emerged from under the water,” Gwadar resident Muhammad Rustam said. “It looked very, very strange to me and also a bit scary because suddenly a huge thing has emerged from the water.” Mohammad Danish, a marine biologist from Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography, said a team of experts had visited the island and found methane gas rising. “Our team found bubbles rising from the surface of the island which caught fire when a match was lit and we forbade our team to start any flame. It is methane gas,” Danish said on GEO television news. The island is about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 metres) high, up to 300 feet wide and up to 120 feet long, he said. It sits about 200 metres away from the coast. Gary Gibson, a seismologist with Australia’s University of Melbourne, said the new island was likely to be a “mud volcano”, created by methane gas forcing material upwards during the violent shaking of the earthquake. “It’s happened before in that area but it’s certainly an unusual event, very rare,” Gibson said, adding that it was “very curious” to see such activity some 400 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre. The so-called island is not a fixed structure but a body of mud that will be broken down by wave activity and dispersed over time, the scientist said. A similar event happened in the same area in 1945 when an 8.1-magnitude earthquake at Makran triggered the formation of mud volcanoes off Gwadar. Professor Shamim Ahmed Shaikh, chairman of the department of geology at Karachi University, said the island, which has not been named, would disperse within a couple of months. He said it happens along the Makran coast because of the complex relationship between tectonic plates in the area. Pakistan sits close to the junction of three plates — the Indian, Arabian and Eurasian. “About a year back an island of almost similar size had surfaced at the similar distance from the coast in the Makran region. This would disperse in a week to a couple of months,” Shaikh said. Gibson said the temporary island was very different from the permanent uplift seen during major “subduction zone” earthquakes, where plate collisions force the Earth’s crust suddenly and sometimes dramatically upwards. For example, in the massive 9.5-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1960 — known as the world’s largest ever — whole fishing villages were thrust “several metres” upwards and wharves suddenly located hundreds of metres inland, Gibson said. Such uplift events are relatively common in the Pacific’s so-called “Ring of Fire”, a hotbed of seismic and volcanic activity at the junction of several tectonic plates. A thundering 8.0-magnitude quake in the Solomon Islands in 2007 thrust Ranogga Island upwards by three metres, exposing submerged reefs once popular with divers and killing the vibrant corals, expanding the shoreline outwards by several metres in the process. During the massive 9.2-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra which triggered a devastating tsunami across the Indian Ocean in 2004, several islands were pushed upwards while others subsided into the ocean. The Aceh coast dropped permanently by one metre while Simeulue Island was lifted by as much as 1.5 metres, exposing the surrounding reef which became the island’s new fringe. Continue reading
Resurgent Nadal to enthrall fans in Abu Dhabi
Resurgent Nadal to enthrall fans in Abu Dhabi 25 September 2013 Rafael Nadal will return to Abu Dhabi for a fifth year at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship from December 26-28, a Press release said. The top three players in the world are now confirmed to battle it out in Abu Dhabi as Nadal joins world number one Novak Djokovic and world number three Andy Murray in what is already a world-class player line up, with three players still to be announced. Having fought his way back into the world top three in ruthless fashion only last month after a 2012 season plagued with injury, Nadal cemented his return to the top of the game with a stunning victory over Novak Djokovic in the last Grand Slam of the year. Nadal overpowered the Serb in four sets to remain unbeaten on hard court in a year which has seen him win 60 of 64 matches and lift 10 titles, two of them majors. Reigning US Open and French Open Champion, Nadal commented: “I’ve been working hard all season and to have won two Grand Slams this year is an amazing feeling. I’m playing good tennis and I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season will bring.” Forced to withdraw from the 2012 Mubadala World Tennis Championship after his long awaited return to action, the sensational Spaniard has since rediscovered his form in frightening fashion. In June 2013 the King of Clay reigned supreme in Paris to become the only man to have won a Grand Slam tournament a record eight times. Nadal has been equally impressive with his unbeaten run on hard-courts proving to his UAE fans he’s back to his best, claiming ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in Montreal and Cincinnati to go with his US Open win. The in-form and fit two-time Mubadala World Tennis Championship champion will be looking to lift the trophy once again at the Zayed Sports City Tennis Centre come December. A victory in Abu Dhabi will send a message to the world as Nadal prepares to start his 2014 campaign at the Australian Open, the season opener and first grand slam of the season. Nadal added: “After the disappointment of last year I promised my fans in the UAE I would return, so I’m very happy it’s happening so soon and I’m back in the player line-up. This will be my fifth time playing in Abu Dhabi and I’m looking forward to getting back on court there later this year. It’s a great opportunity to test myself, especially just before the start of the new season. The stage is set for an epic battle at the top of men’s tennis as all three previous champions have now confirmed their spot at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Novak Djokovic has held onto the Mubadala World Tennis Championship crown for the last two years and will be aiming for his third straight win at the tournament in December. The annual tournament, which sees six of the world’s top players battle it out across three days of explosive tennis at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Centre at Zayed Sports City, will take place from December 26 to 28. Tickets are on sale from www.ticketmaster.ae and 800 TM UAE (86 823) with prices starting from Dh50. For more information, visit: www.mubadalawtc.com Continue reading
