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Al Ain: The oasis city of Al Ain is to get a facelift after the civic administration announced a Dh312m project to develop town centre.
Work on the project will start in early June and is expected to completed in 16 months, Al Ain Municipality announced after the signing of the contract.
Awad Bin Hasoom Al Darmaky, General Manager of Al Ain Municipality, signed the contract with a private company.
He said the project aims at developing the city to keep up with urban growth while preserving the character and architectural heritage.
"We have initiated a project improving the appearance of the city to be an important tourist attraction in the UAE, providing an opportunity to the visitors to enjoy natural scenery," he said. The general manager described the new development as: Al Ain, A Pedestrian Friendly City.
Traffic has grown in the city and the downtown area needs improvement in the required services, he said.
He added that the municipality has taken measures through a series of projects to rehabilitate pavements in the city that would help in solving the problems of the pedestrians and the traffic.
Dr Matar Al Nouami, Executive Director of the Roads and Intersections Sections, said the project will streamline vehicular traffic in the city along with providing 450 parking lots to serve the shops and the public.
An area of 3000 square metres would be developed under the project. Some 25 rest areas would be constructed the downtown area that would able to accommodate some 600 people.
The area, he said, would be decorated with paintings, safety barriers, and other ornamental items to present an attractive and beautiful look.
The main work in the project includes the demolishing and removal of about 3500 cubic meters of concrete bridge on the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan-I Street.
The bridge is one of the city's landmarks and it links Shaikha Salama Roundabout with the Teapot Roundabout. It will be replaced with a beautifully designed network of roads over an area of 120,000 metres. This area will have some 32 safe corridors for pedestrians crossing.
The development on Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Street would have six to eight metre wide pavements in front of the shops and buildings on both sides of the road.
Two underground car parking lots will be constructed, having a capacity of 320 cars, near the Al Ain Cooperative Society. An area of 5500 square metres on the surface of these parking lots would be converted into rest areas.
Al Ain Municipality will also take into account safety precautions during the implementation of the project and several traffic diversions would be made to bypass the traffic through the work areas without affecting the existing traffic routes.
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