RACECOURSE TO OPEN IN TIME, SAYS MEYDAN CHAIRMAN

From Abdul Muin Majid
DUBAI, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- Government-owned Meydan LLC is confident that its
new racecourse will open in time for the Dubai World Cup horse race in 2010
despite the termination of its contract with two companies involved in the
project.

Meydan chairman, Saeed H. Al-Tayer, said it terminated the US$1.25 billion
contract with Dubai-based Arabtec Holding and WCT Bhd of Malaysia because the
joint venture was not able to deliver certain zones of the project on time,
Arabian Business reported.

"As far as we were concerned, they weren't on time to deliver certain zones
for us as per the programme agreed between us. So we had to take a decision," he
was quoted as saying by the online news provider.

Al-Tayer said Meydan had already paid both contractors up-to-date for the
value of the contract completed.

The contract completion date is Oct 7, 2009.

He said Meydan was keeping its options open as to whether to bring in new
firms to complete the work or deploy existing contractors working on other parts
of the project.

The Meydan racecourse features a state-of-the-art dirt and turf track and a
world-class grandstand with a capacity of approximately 60,000 people.

Located near the current Nad Al Sheba racecourse, the Meydan project also
includes a five-star hotel, more than 10 restaurants, several private
hospitality suites and boxes, the new home of the Godolphin Gallery, the Dubai
Racing Club, a state-of-the-art racing museum, as well as a covered car park
for approximately 10,000 cars.
-- BERNAMA