In the latest mega-development to hit Dubai, property firm Limitless on Tuesday announced a $61 billion project to build an 75-kilometre canal and an extensive waterfront development in the emirate.

The Arabian Canal will flow inland from Dubai Waterfront in Jebel Ali and pass to the east of the Dubai World Central development before turning back towards the Palm Jumeirah.

The canal will be up to 150 metres wide, six metres deep and cost around $11 billion.

Along its shores Limitless, part of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World, will spend S$50 billion on a sprawling 20,000-hectare waterfront development that will stretch for 33 kilometres along the inland section of the waterway.

Designed to serve one million people, the development will include marinas, residential communities and business centres serving over a million people.

Work on the canal is due to start in December and will take around three years to complete, while construction of the waterfront development will begin at the end of next year and be completed in phases over a 15 year period.

“It [Arabian Canal] will involve digging and moving more than a million cubic metres of earth – enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools – every day,” Saeed Ahmed Saeed, Chief Executive of Limitless, said in a statement.

“Arabian Canal will, without question, be one of the wonders of the engineering world.”

Limitless will be displaying the Arabian Canal project at the Cityscape real estate expo in Dubai.