DUBAI: DP World has said there are plans to develop the iconic QE2 ocean liner, and denied reports that it will be scrapped.
Campaigners in the UK have sought to bring the ship back to its birthplace, the Clyde and Greenock dock on Scotland’s River Clyde, where the ship was constructed between 1965 and 1967.
The campaign would involve buying the liner back from Dubai and shipping her back from the berth in Port Rashid, where she has been moored since being relocated from Drydocks World.
DP World chairman, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, has said Dubai has a plan for the liner, but declined to elaborate, and also went on to deny that it would be scrapped, which was reported in 2012.
“There is a plan for QE2, I cannot say what it is yet, but I can tell you that these reports that she is to be scrapped are untrue. QE2 will not be scrapped,” he told Cruise Arabia Africa.
The QE2 was purchased by Istithmar, an investment arm of the Dubai World conglomerate, for a reported $100 million (AED367 million) in November 2008.
In 2013, QE2 Holdings announced the appointment of COSCO Shipyard Group to refurbish the ship into a luxury floating hotel.
QE2 Holdings said in a statement that the cruise ship, which has hosted kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and celebrities throughout its legendary 40-year history, would receive a makeover in COSCO Shipyard’s facility in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province.
Campaigners in England have for some years been drawing up proposals to buy back the liner.
QE2 London is a consortium headed by John Chillingworth, who was chief engineer at the ship’s former operator, Cunard, and oversaw Dubai World’s planned conversion of the ship to a luxury hotel moored off the Palm Jumeirah, until the project was shelved when the financial crisis hit in 2009.
QE2 London wants to buy back the QE2 and transform it into a 530-room hotel and conference centre in East London’s fast growing Docklands area.
