Dubai yesterday said it would push ahead with an $11bn (€7.8bn, £5bn) inland waterway project to expand its waterfront. Financial Times

The 75 km Arabian Canal will loop around ‘New Dubai’, the residential and business developments to the west of central Dubai, near the port and industrial zone of Jebel Ali.

It will then extend into the desert as far west as the border with neighbouring Abu Dhabi – enabling a vast expansion of developed area of the desert state.

Project development manager Ian Rayne said work would start in December and was scheduled for completion in three years.