Dubai company creating giant flagpoles for every emirate to celebrate National Day

Each emirate will have flagpoles at least 120 metres tall, with each set to become focal points of UAE National Day celebrations.

Soon every emirate will have its own giant flagpole. Courtesy of Shurooq

DUBAI // David Chambers has been a busy man. In the past two months his company has been responsible for making and installing five huge flagpoles in cities across the country.

In the coming months, Dubai company Trident Support will aim to make a further three flagpoles to be erected in other locations across the country in time for National Day celebrations in December.

The end result will be a flagpole of at least 120 metres in height in each of the seven emirates, as well as four smaller 75-metre flagpoles in Al Dhaid, Dibba Al Hisn, Kalba and Khor Fakkan.

“We put about five big flagpoles up in about 30 days,” said Mr Chambers, an American. “At the end, it was just a mad dash.”

For about 10 years, only Dubai and Abu Dhabi had large flagpoles – both at 123m – but in November 2012 Sharjah joined that group with its own 123m flagpole on Al Jazeera island. That flagpole has become the centre of a landscaped park, and a popular meeting place for Sharjah residents.

There are plans to transform the island even further, with a 200-seat amphitheatre, as well as dozens of shops and cafes.

This year, the emirate decided to commission Trident Support to build smaller flagpoles in enclaves of Sharjah, Al Dhaid, Dibba Al Hisn and Kalba.

“After we did the one in Sharjah and we saw how happy people were with it, we decided to do something for each of the cities in Sharjah,” said Ahmed Al Qaseer, the chief operating officer at Shurooq, the Sharjah government investment body.

“These cities are not geographically connected to Sharjah but they are part of Sharjah, and part of the whole country. If people in Sharjah are celebrating National Day with the flagpole as a gathering point, then people in every city should celebrate in that way, too.

“It will be a gathering point and will resemble the unity between the people and the government.”

A fourth 75m flagpole is planned for a small mountaintop in Khor Fakkan, also an enclave of Sharjah.

But the Sharjah government has first to build road access up the mountain so the component parts can be transported safely.

Trident Support was also responsible for installing two 120m flagpoles in Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah in November.

That contract was under the Federal Ministry of Public Works, unlike the Sharjah poles, which were commissioned by the Sharjah government.

A tender will probably be issued again later this year for the remaining two emirates, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain.

The flurry of activity follows a decree in 2012, by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, who ruled that every emirate needed to have its own flagpole.

Trident Support is dedicated to building record-breaking tall flagpoles. Its first project was the Abu Dhabi flagpole at 123m, which held the record for the tallest in the world when it was built in 2002.

The current tallest flagpole is in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and is 165m tall.

The Ajman, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah flagpoles were built on the design of a 133m flagpole in Turkmenistan, which was built in 2006.

They were creatd in 12m sections at the company’s factory in Jebel Ali and transported by lorry to each of the other emirates.