Dubailand under review

Dubailand, the vast multibillion dollar planned entertainment development, is "being reviewed".

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Dubailand, the vast multibillion dollar planned entertainment development, is "being reviewed", with a timeline for its completion expected to be released next year, Dubai Properties said. "All the dates, all the projects, we are reviewing," said Khalid Al Malik, the chief executive of Dubai Properties. As part of a consolidation process, most of the Dubailand projects, including the Tiger Woods golf development and Bawadi, have been transferred to Dubai Properties from Tatweer. But, theme park and resort projects without property elements, such as Universal Studios, remain under Tatweer.

"Dubailand is a very critical project for Dubai's future vision," said Mr Malik. He insisted that the project was "ongoing" and that no elements of the 3 billion square feet mega project had been "cancelled or terminated". He said in the case of the Aqua Dunya theme park, which was set to include its own port and the world's largest cruise ship, the investor had pulled out, but the project was still open for other investors to take on.

On the Tiger Woods development, which was originally due to open last month, he said: "It is just a matter of review at this stage in time to see what is the perfect time to bring the launch of the project to the market... so the investors will really like to invest in it." Analysts said that the fate of Dubailand would now largely depend on the consequences of the planned merger of Emaar Properties with Dubai Properties, Sama Dubai and Tatweer.

rbundhun@thenational.ae