Now this is a sorry tale. Local Contractors, Douglas OHI originally won the Contract with Sama Dubai to carry out the construction of the project. They built a large labour camp near to the site (and still use it today) as well as a large Concrete batching plant. They spent some significant capital to set up for the project. All of the dredging work was completed, and then Sama Dubai flaked on the project. It turned out that no, they did not have the $2 Billion required to fund the project after all.
Sama Dubai was one of the first victims in Dubai to succumb to the Credit Crunch. In fact their website has not even been updated since 2007, and their last press release was in fact promoting Salam Yiti. Yup, that's right - not even a press release to announce that they were shutting up shop. You've got to love the Corporate responsibility there.
Meanwhile, it looks like a bomb went off at Yiti, with massive dredging and levelling works more or less completed there. There are the usual industry rumours: HM is upset at Sama Dubai, well, their owners, Dubai Holding - ultimately we're talking about Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. And so the rumour goes; HM is considering taking the land back, with Dubai forfeiting the land (and the money paid for it) for not completing the project. What is for sure, is that Omran currently don't appear to know what to do with it. Significant money was spent on the infrastructure, massively upgrading the access and power availability to the area at significant cost. Yiti, and Seifa are lovely places, but a road to the standard that has been built, just to visit those villages... not required. That road was built to transport tourists in large coaches. It's not a total loss, there are other projects popping up in the area, but nothing even close to the magnitude of what was envisaged for Salam Yiti. Watch this space for more news on it when/if it comes though.
Gratefully though, the beach has survived so far.
And I have to say it was a nice day out. A short drive there (thanks to the new road - although I do recommend the old road from Hamriyah for a nice drive). And there was hardly anyone there! The temperature was a lot cooler than it has been in recent weeks, and it was fantastic. A really nice day trip - I highly recommend it for a sneaky beach trip if you feel the need any time soon (ie before it's "developed").
However, driving through the village, it's obvious that the recent storm, Phet, dealt a pretty hard slap to the village. The road was practically gone, almost all of it was just a gravel track again. Many houses also got wiped out, see below:
I hope those that lost their houses are going to be OK. I've not seen anything in the press about Yiti in so long, I wonder if there are any plans in place to replace these houses? Re-new the road running through the village? Upgrade the facilities and infrastructure in the village?
le fin.
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