Father of Dubai

I was watching football the other day and was reminded about the success of the English football team in 1966 when they won the World Cup. On the same year, Dubai had struck gold too as oil was discovered off its coast which helped fuel its rapid development.


Sheikh Rashid  had a famous saying 

“My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel”. 

He was aware its oil reserves would run out in about 50 years and Dubai would have to rely on other sectors of the economy for income. This inspired the development of several infrastructure projects to make Dubai a vital trading hub in the Middle East.

With the help of rising oil prices in the 1970s, one of the first man-made projects was Port Rashid, named after the Ruler of Dubai himself, was opened in 1973 where the biggest ships at the time could use its five berth container terminals. An additional port was also built at Jebal Ali with 66 berths completed by 1983. Not only is this the largest port in the Middle East but to this day it is the largest man-made port ever built! During the same period, Dubai Dry Docks were being constructed which opened in 1979 with a capacity of 1 million ton. Additionally in 1978, the Dubai World Trade Centre was under construction.

Not only were the creation of the ports very successful as they allowed a link between the Far East and the Western hemisphere, they were also very ambitious. To make us understand how ambitious the Sheikh was, the cost of Palm Jumeirah or Palm Island, which is a man-made, residential, palm shaped island, is evaluated at $12 billion. The cost of the Jebel Ali port is estimated at $9 billion if it was built today.