On Sunday, the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), Abu Dhabi's major tourism asset developer, announced that it is constructing a Dh1 billion labor accommodation facility on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island. It would be the first cluster which would be ready by July to accommodate 5,000 workers.

At a news conference on the island Bassam Terkawi, Director for Public Relations and Events at TDIC said that the three remaining clusters of Phase 1 would open by March 2010, which would accommodate another 15,000 workers with the potential to add clusters in the future to accommodate a total of 40,000 workers when required.

Mr. Terkawi further added, "The construction village on Saadiyat Island is part of our ongoing plans to establish a good benchmark for the region, and Abu Dhabi in particular, which we feel is vital for our future success."

It has been learnt that the size of the labour accommodation would be increased to accommodate 40,000 workers, depending on the progress on the construction of different districts on Saadiyat Island.

No charges would be taken from the workers for using the facilities as TDIC and the contractor involved would share the cost spent in accommodating them.

TDIC, which engages several contractors and sub-contractors for its projects, is a master developer of major tourism destinations in Abu Dhabi.

Terkawi did not comment anything when he was asked about the total cost of the projects being developed on Saadiyat Island; however he did say that due to various changes in the international construction market the figure of $27 billion given previously as the over-all development cost of the island is no longer accurate.

He concluded that by 2020, all the work on Saadiyat Island will be completed.

(via TopNews Arab Emirates. Contributed by Rehan Rachid)