Sheikh Mohammed opens new Dubai Metro Green Line says debt crisis over
Posted on 10 September 2011 with 3 comments from readers
Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum toured the 23-kilometre new Green Line of the Dubai Metro and opened it yesterday exactly two years after the first line. He said the city’s debt crisis was over.
The new metro runs 23 kilometers through the older part of the city out near the airport through the Dubai Healthcare City, the historic Shindagha district where His Highness was born, and under the Dubai Creek to Union Square station.
Metro success
The original 52-kilometre Red Line has been a big success with the general public despite the extreme heat of Dubai in the summer months that is often unavoidable to reach the air-conditioned, super-modern metro. By the year-end 100,000 people-a-day are predicted to use the system.
Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid and Dubai Deputy Ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid on an exhaustive tour of the 18 stations that opened yesterday each with a legacy work of art commemorating the day.
Dubai has the only metro system in the Gulf States, although both Abu Dhabi and Doha are also building metros now. But Dubai has shelved plans for the Blue and Purple lines in the wake of the real estate crash of three years ago.
Regional first
It is this kind of infrastructure that puts Dubai in a league of its own as a commercial and financial hub city for the Gulf, and while financial companies are currently in a global crisis there are plenty of multinationals that continue to expand their operations in Dubai, especially as other locations in the region have become even more difficult due to the Arab uprisings of this year.
Dubai’s debt crisis of two years ago now seems a distant memory with rescheduling of key loans completed and a recovery in trade and tourism this year. However, the city will clearly not escape a second global financial crisis.
3 Comments posted by readers:
Crisis is over lol.. Have they paid back all their debts in Dubai?
I wonder if Dubai’s creditors think the debt crisis is over?
“Crisis is over!!!!!!!” That was the only thing I kept on hearing in Dubai since the World’s Financial Crisis started. People in Dubai are suffering of losing their jobs, not able to pay back their loans, and being put in jail afterwards. The problem in Dubai is that the financial system lacks transparency. I will put the situation as simple as possible, as long as Dubai’s financial system is directly linked to the U.S. market and the dollar, with no doubt it will keep falling until the rent of 4 bedroom high quality apt is 36,780 Dhs per year. Keep this in mind.