Page 354 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
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The External Influences
         became specialised in hydrological surveys of the area and issued
         several hydrological yearbooks for the 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.  m
         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 Slates 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

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