DUBAI, Aug. 3 -- Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum launched Monday Meydan One, a tourism development project expected to feature a 1.2 km-long ski slope, an ice rink along with the world's largest fountain, said the ruler's media office via its social media channels.

The project will cover an area of 3.5 million square meters. It will be located between the 829 meters-tall Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, and the Meydan racecourse in the emirate's center.

The project's phase one is slated to be completed by 2020, the year Dubai will host The World Expo as the first ever Arab city.

Local newspaper SevenDays tweeted its first impressions of the Meydan One project. Aside from the planned ski slope and ice rink, the development will also introduce the world's largest fountain, capable of shooting water up to 420 meters high.

The 1.5 kilometers-long ice rink will be the world's longest. Hotels, residential properties, a shopping mall and a high-rise building called Meydan One Tower are included in the project.

Dubai already has an artificial indoor ski slope in Mall of the Emirates shopping center, opened in November 2005.

As per Sheikh Mohammed's order, also vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai will double tourist numbers to an annual 20 million by 2020.