Dubai - it's the place where movie stars & celebrities, world-renowned artists,
professional athletes, famous politicians, and world leaders go to relax.
You might have also heard about its futuristic architecture, humongous constructions like Burj
Khalifa, and ATMs that cash out pure gold. (Yes, you heard that right. It has gold-spitting ATMs!)
But even a city that spits out gold is going to bat an eye when it's connected to another town
by underwater floating trains - especially when they're speeding faster than any traveling on
solid ground! This time, millionaires, the United Arab Emirates are taking it to a whole new level.
And today, you're going to find out why Dubai is building a futuristic underwater train.
Let's get right into the video... The UAE surprised the entire world
with its intent to create a Sci-Fi-like, underwater rail network. Its Director and
Chief Consultant of the National Advisor Bureau (NAB), Abdullah Alshehhi, announced
the Bureau's plans to build underwater, super-speed bullet trains to connect
India and the UAE. And as you might've guessed by its coverage on this channel,
their ultimate goal is to facilitate trade and tourism between the two countries.
So it's not just Mumbai that will benefit - the rail network will connect the Indian city
of Mumbai - India's largest city, and located on the western coast of the country - and Fujairah,
which lies on the Gulf of Oman and sits on the eastern coast of the UAE.
Khaleej Times, the UAE's first English newspaper, reported on Abdullah Alshehhi's speech at a
UAE-India conclave held in Abu Dhabi. According to the Khaleej Times, he says that the NAB wants to
construct the Rail Network across the Arabian sea - an extension of the Indian Ocean - connecting
the latter with the Gulf of Oman (Fujairah). If everything goes according to plan,
the result is going to be pretty impressive! The rail network between Mumbai
and Fujairah won't just provide easier, time-efficient transportations to tourists,
but trade procedures will also become a lot less complicated.
Alshehhi's official statement to the Khaleej Times was,
"This is a concept. We plan to connect the Indian city of Mumbai
with Fujairah through ultra-speed floating trains. The project aims to boost bilateral trade.
There will be export of oil to India from Fujairah port and import of excess water from Narmada
River, north of Mumbai. In addition, other GCC partners can also improve export and import."
But it's one thing to imagine creating an underwater rail network;
how is it actually supposed to function? What makes it an ambitious project and not
just an idea for a science fiction movie? Well, this futuristic marvel will travel
through two floating tunnels or tubes made out of concrete. And keep in mind that this train
network is being planned for resource importing and exportation as well as passenger mobility.
That's why the two tunnels have opposite directions and are placed next to each other.
This way, you get constant back-and-forth trips, and yes, a never-ending exchange of commodities
(water from Mumbai to Fujairah and Oil from Fujairah to Mumbai).
"But wait," you might be thinking, "how are you supposed to make tunnels float underwater?
Let alone when they're made of concrete?" The NAB intends to support the tunnels by
installing a network of pontoons along the entire length of the tunnels. These large,
flat-bottomed boats are usually used to support temporary floating bridges. But in this case,
they'll be long-term support to keep the tunnels floating deep beneath the waves.
Of course, if these tunnels were closer to the surface, it wouldn't matter how marvelous their
technology was because it would all quickly be part of one big maritime disaster. Imagine a giant
freight ship running into one of these tunnels just as a passenger train is passing. It would be
the greatest seaborne tragedy since the Titanic. So while the UAE capitalized on this already
working technology to make the tunnels float below the surface of the Arabian Sea, they also made
sure to keep them deep enough to avoid disturbance from passing ships - and even from the weather.
All this sounds pretty amazing, right? But don't expect to take any tours of the floating tunnels
unless you're really good at holding your breath, that is.-
because there's no air inside the tunnels whatsoever. This design eliminates air
resistance completely, making it even easier for the trains to travel at maximum speed.
Speaking of which, just how fast are these bullet trains expected to be? Well, the NAB is predicting
they'll literally accomplish never-before-seen feats. It's going to be almost mythological.
In fact, the NAB referenced the fictional leviathan - a dragon-like sea monster
imagined to be about 300 miles long while discussing their rail network.
Their underwater rail network is expected to extend for more than four times that gargantuan
amount: about 2000 Kilometers beneath the Arabian Sea (that's about 1242 miles).
For perspective, that's about the same distance from Chicago and Texas
and the truly crazy part? This bullet train can cover that massive gap in a record time of only
two hours. Some experts speculated it'll run at an incredible speed of 186 miles per hour.
Others say it'll be 373 miles per hour. But, if the underwater bullet trains are
truly going to be fast enough to cover that huge distance in just two hours,
that means they can reach ridiculous max speeds of 621 miles per hour. That's almost twice the
speed of the world's fastest high-speed train: the L0 Series Maglev that can reach 374 mph.
Now. If you think something like this is going to be almost obnoxiously expensive to build
and operate, well, you're probably right. Which brings us to the ultimate question...
Will both countries really save so much time, money, and resources
executing trades and transporting goods and commodities to be worth this crazy cost?
Well, considering the system's expected performance rate,
both countries will actually benefit a great deal from this project,
though there are four main benefits. The first benefit is trade profits. A LOT
of them! Both countries will make a lot of money by trading their goods, and with complete freedom.
Meanwhile, they'll be trading each side's most precious resource; India will get oil
from the UAE, and in return, the UAE will get the excess freshwater water from the Narmada River.
The second benefit is that, actually, both parties will end up saving a lot of money.
By deploying this speedy underwater train, both countries can cut down a sizable chunk of their
export/import expenses. For perspective, a cargo ship would take 30-35 days to get from
India to the UAE, vs 2 hours for these crazy fast trains. And keep in mind,
these ships consume a ton of diesel, require a lot of manual labor, and can malfunction and sink
unpredictably. So while the upfront cost of the rail network will be stupendously great,
they'll quickly start making that back by scaling down their less efficient transportation methods.
The third benefit of the rail network is it will help a great deal with minimizing ocean pollution.
Thousands of cargo ships sink every year and spew out all the toxic matter from their containers
into the water - killing the marine life in it, as well as poisoning fish that humans may end
up eating. These heavyweights sink because of the wind force effect on their balance,
a problem the underwater trains and rails won't have to worry about.
And the fourth and final benefit will be all of the tempting tourism revenue.
A study on stastista.com showed that tourism- even without rail -will add approximately $76
billion to the UAE's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2028. And back in 2017, it contributed $41
billion to its GDP, providing over 570,000 jobs. India, meanwhile, added $194 billion to its GDP
from tourism in 2019. It's also expected to reach $490 by 2028.
Imagine how much that could increase for both parties once people can easily go from one
continent to the other in just a matter of hours. So, that's why Dubai and the UAE are building a
futuristic underwater train and rail network. While it's certainly an immense undertaking,
if these two world powers can pull off the project, it may well redefine
both economics and intercontinental travel for coming generations.
What do you think? Will this be one of the engineering marvels of the 21st century?
Or is it going to be winding up on a "biggest failed projects of the 2020s" list someday?
Let us know in the comments below, and make sure to like and subscribe
if you haven't already, millionaire! See you in the next video!