Page 354 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

The External Influences

became specialised in hydrological surveys of the area and issued
several hydrological yearbooks for Ihe Development Office. The first
mineral resources survey was undertaken in 1966 by Mr J. E. G.
Greenwood, of the Overseas Division of the Institute of Geological
Sciences in London. The University of Durham first became involved
in soil surveys in 1967, and published an assessment of agricultural
potential both in the northern Trucial Stales and in Abu Dhabi; the
latter was usually not included in such surveys because the Stale
could by then pay for them itself.130 Studies were also made of the
feasibility of constructing roads and tracks through difficult sandy,
rocky or mountainous terrain, bearing in mind the limited financial
resources. Fishing on both coasts of the Trucial States was also
studied with a view to expanding this industry. Because all these
surveys were often also of interest to other development agencies and
universities, the Development Office had little problem in obtaining
assistance, other than financial, from universities, the Food and
Agricultural Organisation, and other United Nations organisations,
and from the British Ministry of Overseas Development with its
regional headquarters in Beirut.131
Roads
: Until the late 1960s if anyone in Abu Dhabi or Dubai considered
travelling to Fujairah he would usually take a boat all the way round
Cape Musandam. There were no roads, and the tracks through the
sand and over the mountains were either so rough as to require
rugged vehicles, or were only passable by donkey or camel. If the new
institutions such as the hospital in Dubai or the marketing facilities
in the towns on the Gulf coast were to play a role in the lives of the
people on the east coast and in the interior, communications had to
be substantially improved.
When the Development Office was established in 1965 no road had
been built except some town roads in Dubai, and the 13.5 kilometre
road between Dubai and Sharjah became the first major project to be
executed by the Development Office. The road was opened in October
1966 by the then chairman of the Trucial States Council, Shaikh Saqr
bin Muhammad of Ra’s al Khaimah. The continuation of this road
from Sharjah to Ra’s al Khaimah was eventually not built by the
Development Office, but the Saudi Arabian Government decided to
finance and execute the project independently, with a revised route
and specifications, and to include an extension from Ra’s al Khaimah
329