Dubai: Off the coast near Jumeirah Beach Residence, engineers are diligently working on the world’s largest Ferris wheel, which has been confirmed to reach a staggering 260 metres in height.

How tall is that?

The latest addition to Dubai’s list of megastructures will be more than double the length of two football fields.

Once completed, the Dubai Eye will steal the title from the 167m High Roller in Las Vegas as the world’s tallest Ferris wheel.

Meeras Holding has released a six-minute video clip, showing behind the scenes footage of construction of Dubai’s City Walk, Rainforest and Dubai Eye.

“We are on Bluewaters Island… Dubai Eye is going to be the biggest Ferris wheel in the world,” says an official in the video, who is involved in the project’s construction.

He explained that the diameter of the wheel will be 250 metres, and once it is set up on a four-legged frame, the wheel will be approximately 260 to 262 meters tall.

“It’s enormous… it’s the world’s largest observation wheel and to do that we had to employ a great team of people using some of the largest equipment’s in the world. The materials and components are being shipped in from all over the world,” said the official.

Commenting about the project, the engineer also explained that visitors will be provided with a 4D cinema experience, which will provide all the facts of Dubai. Two escalators will then carry visitors to the Ferris wheel’s capsule, where they can enjoy the city’s panoramic views for about 48 minutes as it goes up.

The world’s largest Ferris wheel is part of the Dh6-billion Bluewaters Island project near Jumeirah Beach Residence. Built by Meraas Holding, the ferris wheel will have 48 capsules to hold 1,400 visitors, and offer breathtaking views of Burj Al Arab, Palm Jumeirah and Burj Khalifa.

According to Meraas’s website, a rainforest will be constructed in the middle of a bio-dome at Dubai’s City Walk, which will be ready in time for Expo 2020. Known as The Green Planet, the project recreates the enchanting world of a tropical forest with its rich biodiversity of over 3,000 plants and animals. The enclosed ecosystem will also offer visitors an immersive expedition into the tropics, and provide first-hand experience of one of the world’s oldest living ecosystems.

“The rainforest is a biodome project in the middle of the desert, so it will be a tropical rainforest within a building. Its full of tropical plants [with] 3,000 animals in Dubai,” said an official working on the project.

“If you can’t jump on a plane and go to a tropical rainforest… this gives the opportunity to experience that,” she added.

Source: gulfnews.com