TRANQUIL: Al Barari will include expansive gardens, waterways, an alternative medicine village and cultural village.

MOHAMMED BIN ZAAL: Environmental quality is a priority.

Water is a key theme of the development, with plans to develop the world’s longest man-made waterway at 14.6km.

Plant species never seen previously in the UAE will be introduced and used in 15 themed botanical gardens.

Al Barari’s villas will be handed over in four phases.

Al Barari says its 50,000m² nursery is the ME’s largest.

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Construction-wise, Al Barari has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls that have been plaguing the industry across the region of late.

Materials shortages and rising costs, so often the thorn in the side of the developer-contractor relationship, have not been an issue due to a close working relationship with the main contractor Al Naboodah.
Zaal says: "Naboodah have helped us a lot. At the moment, whoever wants to work for you, you just snap them up, because everyone is so busy on the contracting side. We have a very good relationship with Naboodah and we were happy to get them on board.

They were not the cheapest, but we do not cut corners. We know that if we did, it would harm us in the end."

Talking of the all-too-common delays that have hit projects across the GCC, Zaal continues: "Delays are something that have hit the whole market here. The amnesty law that came in a few years ago saw two or three hundred thousand people leave the country, most of whom were construction labourers, which really hit the market.

"Of course, with raw materials you are looking at a five-fold rise in the cost of a tonne of steel in recent years. These things do affect everyone but I think we have anticipated many problems.

We foresaw that electricity supply may be a problem, so we are currently building our own sub-station which will power the entire development. We are trying to support ourselves internally as much as possible."

Al Barari have also put much thought into the environmental quality of the development that bears the company name. More than 80% of the land in phase one is devoted to gardens and common areas, making Al Barari the least dense development in the region.

In addition to this, hundreds of species of plants which have never been seen before in the UAE are to be used to create 15 themed botanical gardens. As Zaal says:

"We were the pioneers of green real estate development. Everything from our water strategies to our recycling, and from our lighting to our planting. Our plant production totals 1.3 million trees annually.

Along with this, our ratio of built up area to open land is something that has never really been tested before. Within this open land we are building the longest man-made waterway in the world, at 14.6 km.

"As far as recycling is concerned, we have adopted a Spanish system that is completely underground. The seal is hydraulically lifted to allow access to different compartments.

Each villa will also be supplied with bins to separate waste. We will also introduce green recycling with a composting plant, so we are making use of organic waste."

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