Dubai’s Safari Park is on course to open next year

• Image Credit: Dubai Muncipality/Gulf News Archives
• An artist’s impression of Desert Safari, which will replace Dubai Zoo. The project is expected to be completed by 2015.

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Dubai: Tucked away behind a large security fence on Al Aweer Road opposite Dragonmart, workers are diligently building and landscaping the desert to shape Dubai’s new Safari Park zoo in time for a 2015 opening, say officials.

Plans to relocate Dubai Zoo, currently located on Jumeirah Road, have been on the cards for nearly 10 years as the project has been scrutinised, reworked and revised to come up with a feasible method of relocating roughly 1,000 animals from their existing cramped quarters.

The development of the new zoo is being carried out by Dubai Municipality and will see one of the most modern facilities in the world rise from the sand in the Al Warqa area.

“The project is smoothly running on track and will be completed by the end of 2015,” said an official at Dubai Municipality who is working closely with the project. “The project consists of 12 phases, and within the next few weeks we are going to start construction on the Safari Village. The wadi has already been completed.”