DUBAI: Dubai is back in the spotlight for its out-of-the-box projects as Drydocks World revealed remarkable details of an underwater hotel to be built off the emirate's coast.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the company said it has signed an agreement with a Swiss company to develop the World Discus Hotel, a series of spaceship-shaped structures, part of which is a habitable area submerged under the sea.
The announcement came just a month after Drydocks World filed for insolvency protection in Dubai and Singapore in a move to restructure its $2.2 billion debt.
Drydocks World has unveiled a deal with BIG InvestConsult — which holds the technology rights to the project — to build an underwater hotel that looks like a series of massive discus plates joined by a network of undersea and above-water structures, including a helipad.
"The structure… elevates marine leisure facility to new unprecedented functional level," the Swiss company stated on its website. BIG is in talks with other investors and said it will fund the hotel.
"Drydocks and Maritime World is appointed as the exclusive main contractor for construction of the new concept hotels and cities floating in the Middle East," Drydocks said in a statement.
Dubai is home to palm-shaped and world-map-shaped reclamation projects, the world's tallest tower, an indoor ski slope and the world's longest driverless metro.
The Swiss firm said it aims build the underwater hotel off the coast of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Drydocks World, told media persons that the company will fabricate the structures using techniques similar to building oil rigs based on seven design types — each costing between $50 million and $120 million (Dh183.5 million and Dh440.4 million).
The firms said two developments with five hotels attached to them are planned in the Middle East. It also aims to include a lab for marine environment research.
