Le Black-Forest-Airport est en passe de devenir une pomme de discorde indigeste entre l'axe Karlsruhe-Stuttgart, partisans du Baden-Airport à Söllingen, et l'alliance Lahr-Fribourg, qui veut promouvoir l'accès direct à la Forêt Noire. Ancienne base de l'OTAN, ce site ne détient actuellement qu'une concession pour le fret et les vols d'affaires privés. Depuis des années, il tente d'obtenir une concession pour des vols commerciaux.
Concession limitée
à la desserte d'Europapark
Avec le nouveau gérant, Babcock ' Brown, la bataille vient de redémarrer de plus belle. Fin septembre 2005, le groupe australien d'investisseurs a racheté pour 500 000€ 99% des parts de l'aéroport et a annoncé la couleur « Les gens de Stuttgart vont devoir nous prendre au sérieux. » Ce qui vient d'arriver : B ' B a élaboré avec Roland Mack, le directeur du Europapark, un concept rationnel dont la quintessence n'est en aucune manière la concurrence avec Söllingen mais le développement économique du parc d'attraction et indirectement de la région limitrophe.
L'argumentation s'appuie sur le modèle de desserte optimisée pour Disneyland. « Le développement futur du parc est étroitement lié à l'aéroport », soutient Roland Mack qui se met à rêver les conséquences d'un rattachement direct à la circulation aérienne internationale : plusieurs centaines de milliers de visiteurs en plus chaque année, la construction de nouveaux hôtels, un second parc futuriste, bref, la création de 1 000 emplois et la sécurisation de milliers d'autres déjà existants. Il ne s'agit pas de concurrencer les vols commerciaux de Söllingen mais de se mesurer à Euro-Disney !
Déjà un vol spécial autrichien
Pourtant, Karlsruhe ne voit pas la chose du même oeil et a mis tout en oeuvre pour entraver ce projet. Les informations les plus burlesques sont diffusées. Début décembre, l'annonce que B'B s'apprête à investir 60 M€ à Söllingen suscite l'exaspération du groupe qui dément officiellement et ajoute que si négociations il y avait eu, elles auraient de toute manière capoté après de telles indiscrétions.
Lahr est et reste le sujet d'intérêt des Australiens ainsi que de l'ensemble des acteurs économiques et politiques du sud du Pays de Bade. Et le président de la IHK (chambre de commerce et d'industrie) du Rhin supérieur sud, Karl-Hubert Dischinger, d'ajouter lundi que « Karlsruhe n'est plus l'éminence grise qui nous dicte tout ce que nous devons faire » alors que le président de la IHK de Karlsruhe, Bernd Bechtold, et le maire de Karlsruhe, Heinz Fenrich (CDU), font front commun contre l'hésitation du Land en faveur d'une concession limitée.
Dernier mot à Stuttgart
Or, le vol spécial autrichien de l'A320 qui a atterri à Lahr le 8 janvier avec 174 passagers invités à visiter le parc avant sa fermeture hivernale n'a pas vraiment contribué à calmer les esprits, les uns y voyant la concrétisation possible de leurs velléités et les autres croyant y reconnaître un dangereux précédent. Bien sûr, une autorisation spéciale du Regierungspräsidium de Fribourg avait été nécessaire en amont mais la symbolique n'en demeure pas moins forte.
La décision revient à Günther Oettinger, Ministerpräsident (préfet) du Bade-Wurtemberg, qui ne semble pas vraiment enthousiaste de trancher dans ce combat des caciques régionaux. Quant à la population limitrophe de l'aéroport, personne ne lui demande vraiment son avis.
Source : DNA
Sheikh Hamdan opens Dhs200 million Zabeel Park
Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry, and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, opened on Tuesday Zabeel Park, the first technology-based recreational theme park in the Gulf.
The opening ceremony was attended by Qassim Sultan, Director General of Dubai Municipality, senior government officials from local departments and the municipality.
The park is divided into three plots, all of which are interlinked by pedestrian bridges.
Sultan said the Dh200 million park comprises a number of provisions including food courts, a cricket pitch, amphitheatre, exhibition centres and special facilities for boating.
"Zabeel Park will become a major tourist attraction in Dubai. The park has something to offer each visitor," he said.
With an overall area of 47.5 hectares the park has been designed with a technology theme that reflects the current status of Dubai as a regional centre for the development of high technology and IT industries. Zabeel Park will provide a themed recreation and leisure facility of international standard, for the enjoyment of both local residents and visitors.
To reflect and maximise the technology theme, the park features a series of high tech interactive displays including educational and recreational exhibits grouped into three zones (Alternative Energy zone, Communications zone and Techno zone) as well as a maze modelled on the planetary system and other technology based attractions. In combination with these elements, the park features a contemporary and futuristic style that provides the park with an individual, vibrant and unique character, unseen before in other parks of Dubai.
The infrastructure of the park is functional and visually appealing in its own right, and incorporates a wide range of facilities such as a boating lake and lakeside restaurant; a sports centre; and exhibition gallery; an activity area including mini golf, adventure play, a skateboard park and a BMX track; informal recreation areas, barbeque facilities, shaded seating and play areas and refreshment kiosks.
There are plenty of play areas for children, while adults can spend their time sitting at the lakeside restaurants and enjoying the scenic beauty of the park. The park has been divided into three zones of 281,000 square metres, 162,000 square metres and 22,000 square metres.
The main attraction of the park is a mega bowl, which will be used for organising multi-purpose activities including weddings, parties, birthday functions and other events associated with college and business establishments.
Apart from functions, the mega bowl can be used for conducting exhibitions and shows from time to time. A terraced seating arrangement in the mega bowl will accommodate 2,000 people at any one time.
A mini-cricket pitch also forms part of Zabeel Park. Although not as big as a cricket ground, the mini-cricket field with a standard pitch and outfield promises to provide plenty of entertainment for cricket fans.
The other important features of the park include a jogging track of 4.3 kilometres surrounding the park with soft and hard landscaping of approximate width 12 metres. A number of date palm trees along with water fountains will dot the lush green park in the heart of the city.
The park will also feature a series of high-tech interactive displays including educational and recreational exhibits grouped into three zones. The park also has three sister city monuments in the form of Geneva, Gold Coast and Istanbul. The city monuments were incorporated in the park as part of sister city agreements between Dubai Municipality and the cities of Geneva, Istanbul and Gold Coast. In the next phase, there will be monuments for the other nine cities with which Dubai has signed sister cities agreements.
The 200 square meter Exhibition Gallery, situated on the main piazza opposite the restaurant, will provide a flexible internal exhibition space which can be used for a variety of exhibitions, by local school and community groups, private companies and by Dubai Municipality. Exhibitions can include a wide range of interests from sculpture and painting to promotions, such as product launches for computers cars or mobile phones, as well as educational displays on innovations from the world of science and technology.
Boating Lake: The ornamental boating lake is the central feature of the southern part of the park and will be filled from a stream cascading down a series of natural rock weirs from a height of 4.0m. A mix of pedal, rowing and battery powered motor boats will be available for hire. An island is incorporated into the design of the lake with a pathway access over two bridges to a lakeside viewing gazebo. A 'geyser' fountain will be a central feature within the lake which will erupt to a height of 20 metres once every twenty minutes.
Lakeside Restaurant & Entrance Piazza Restaurant: There are two main restaurants located in the Park. The first is a cafeteria-style restaurant adjacent to the main entrance plaza in the Northern part of the park and provides air-conditioned seating as well as extensive external paved and lawn areas. This restaurant will have an unusual interior décor reflecting the current Internet café trend. The second major restaurant, the Lakeside restaurant, will provide indoor as well as extensive outdoor seating on a timber deck area overlooking the boating lake.
Other features of the park include three refreshment kiosks, Piazza Café, health and fitness centre (a private sector venture, which will be completed by December 2007), Star Gate edutainment centre (another private venture to be completed by next year), Space Maze (modelled on the planetary system), barbeque areas, prayer areas for gents and ladies, boating lake, food court and Assault Course.
All three zones of the park are connected by a road train, which transports visitors from one zone to the other.
Source : Ameinfo
Design : Hitmaaan
