XKV8

FYI only to anyone looking at taking an unpaid move to said location.

If you manage to look at a plan detail for the area you might just notice a fabulous Sewage Treatment Plant on the NE side of the compound. Right below this, SE side of compound, there is a lovely Heavy Truck Maintenance Facility.

When the individual (Scottish I think) in charge of the water and electricity coming online for the 560 Villas was asked by yours truly if the adjacent sewage facility had an open air concept the answer was yes. When I mentioned the prevailing winds he just smiled....or was it a smirk.

Just info for anyone thinking about moving out there. If you do indeed get to choose your Villa then highly consider staying on the SW or even NW side (closest to Al Ain highway).

BaghDaddy.

They never mentioned any ****-farms in the recent email offer to move in...

Desert Diner

I think they called it "An Eco friendly Oasis"

remlap

I would like to try to locate this oasis on a map. Can someone give me a bearing and distance from some large, recognizable point of reference such as the airport or the city?

Remlap

donpizmeov

Its about 20km from Dubai, in the desert between Dubai and Al Ain. If you have a map that shows the Dubai to Al Ain highway, it is about 500m the other side of where Emirates road crosses that highway, from Dubai. As it is in the middle of no-where at the moment, that's about the best I can do. It will be near the Dubai land and all that sort of stuff when they eventually get built. One day it will be a fine place to be. At the moment it is far from schools (for those already with kids established at school already.), shops etc....seems it might be a long drive for a pint of milk or bread etc. I am sure shops etc will follow, but it might be a very long warm wait.

I think its a bit cheeky of the company to expect people to volunteer to move out there at no cost to the company. I think I will just wait to get kicked out of where I am now when the rent goes up, and get sent there. At least that way they give a couple of thousand AED to help with moving expenses.

Don

turtleneck

to be fair: at least they give us the option, even without paying the move and with no choice but to accept the one villa offered.
but some would most probably bitch if not given the option, however i don't think anybody will move there now.ttn

uplock

To be fair go have a look at the joint, The Villas are all seperated all though some back yards are small still beats living in a compound. The watch man told me he is getting around 15 guys a day checking out the Villas.

To give some comparison the same company that built these Villas also built the Villas at Arabian Ranches now selling for over 2.2 Million Dhs

Buford

Just curious...how many have lodged an app? And why? There were plenty of people out there when we went for a look and at present we're considering it ourselves.

Fellowship of the drink

the park plan is located at www.dso.ae
top bar - highlight microelectronics park - select park plan
Villa projects are in yellow. EK 560 villas are the ones on the left nearest al ain road (rte 66)
Fellowship of the drink

kingoftheslipstream

Ladies and Gents of EK,
The new Dubai Silicon Oasis Compound (560 villas) is being 'offered' to EK employees... as usual there's a cloud in every silver lining...
The homes will not be landscaped, that will need to be completed at the employee's expense, on top of the cost of your move.
More inconveniently, and potentially more costly, is the fact that the homes are NOT on 'mains water', they are provided with water from a tank, one for each villa. It has about a 400 Imp. Gal. capacity (my personal estimate, I may be way off).
The company is being used to prop up and populate a new compound to make it look like the whole area is 'up and coming'...
As usual, the 'fine details' regarding provision of services and amenities are 'still being negotiated'...
I smell a rat here in the ever dwindling EK package... look for: employees to pay their own utility costs, which of course are three times more expensive for a non-UAE National as they are for UAE Nationals...
Be Careful!

The Real Pink Baron

KOTST
Please tell me you are joking, Re: Water & landscaping! We are thinking of moving out there, where do you get your info. from?
Apart from the Gestapo attitude of "you will go to the villa we tell you , otherwise you will be shot" it dosn"t look too bad, or was I wearing the wrong sunglasses at the time.
Pink (so are the glasses)::

fatigueflyer

*No landscaping at all. You will find sand which may be up to three feet below your back steps and guess who is going to pay for the land fill. Yes, you! Costly depending on size of land plus landscaping. This is due to the fact that EK Accom Dept do not touch anything outside the walls of your villa. Good luck.

max AB

Same thing happend to the 90 odd families who went to Internet City a few years back. Had to fill about a meter of sand in their yards.

halas

When we moved into our villa, no one had landscaped the yard, or our nieghbours nor any one elses yard in the complex.

Please don't tell me you think they were going to give you a 400GAL tank and wait for the rains to come?????!!!!
Water supply is, like many villas in Dubai, via a header tank fed by, wait for it, mains water.

I think the offer is made to those that have "personal reasons" to want to move out of their present company locale, ie don't get on with the neighbours, don't like the construction site next door, sick of living next to the airport, etc........

halas

remlap

My wife wants information regarding waste disposal. Is it sewer, hole in sand or blue water arrangement? (I love that lav smell) After reading the posts, it sounds like almost anything is a possibility.

Just wondering.

max AB

Anything is possible.... If you make the move understand that promises will be made but in the end they will not be delivered. (The phone might take months to be connected). Accept that now and you won't be too dissapointed. Get written answers to all you questions from Accom Dept. Another suggestion is to make sure you can use the tradesman of your choice to do all the work that you will have to complete. ie, gardener, satellite provider, bottled water delivery etc as the compound manager will be getting kickbacks for his mates only. In the end accom will say that anything not delivered was not their fault but that of the Contracts Dept who did the negotiating. These are a few things that have happened to others so learn from their hassles.

Uplink

The water supply is piped into an outside tank then into the villa. Thats what I was told by the contractors. It is the same as having the tank on the roof and letting gravity do the rest.

As for the gardens, it is up to the individual to landscape the property. Any one know about the rest of the electrics and gas being covered by EK.

mini cooper

As it is so far out in the desert - do you get a place to park your camel?

Aircav

XKV8,
Can you be more specific about the locations of the Sewage and Truck facilities. I had a look at the master plan but did not notice them. When you say compound do you mean Villa compound or the whole development??
As for the water issue, if there is no mains does this mean that water is going to be supplied by tankers.
My main issue looking at the main site map was the areas zoned for Medium/High density housing. I have been trying to get answers to this but the silence is worrying!!!!!

Anyone had better luck???

Fellowship of the drink

try this link
http://www.gis.gov.ae/en/downloads/p...20Projects.pdf
sewage plant is on the SW corner of International city, China section (not shown in map).
the truck stop is shown but is at the extreme end of the silicon project.
FOTD