What’s on has details of a new Dubai shopping mall set to be the biggest shopping mall in the world, named ‘Mall Of The World’, including hotels, theatres.

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Step aside Dubai Mall as plans are in the pipeline to build the world’s largest mall under a giant glass dome – arguably the emirate’s most ambitious project ever planned.

Dubai Holding, the conglomerate that owns Jumeirah Group, intends to develop an 8 million square foot ‘Mall of the World’ which will include the world’s largest indoor theme park – covered by a glass dome that will be open during the winer – and a 7km ‘covered street network’ that remsembles more of a European high street than a typical mall.

The project was launched on Saturday by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

“The growth in family and retail tourism underpins the need to enhance Dubai’s tourism infrastructure as soon as possible,” said Sheikh Mohammed. “This project complements our plans to transform Dubai into a cultural, tourist and economic hub for the two billion people living in the region; and we are determined to achieve our vision.”

It will be the centrepiece of “the world’s first temperature-controlled city”, which is also set to include over 100 new hotels and apartment buildings as well as a cultural district complete with theatres and museums.

The Mall of the World complex will be able to handle 180 million visitors each year.

The site of the proposed development is across the highway from the Mall of the Emirates although start and completion dates were not disclosed.

Speaking in the days after the announcement, Chief executive for Dubai Holding, Ahmad bin Byat, said: “The way things are growing I think we are barely coping with the demand; tourism is growing in Dubai,” adding that the whole project will be built over 10 years and the funds will be raised gradually over that period.

“The Dhs25 billion figure is how much it will cost when it’s ready. That is in about 10 years so we are talking about a requirement of about Dhs2.5 billion every year for the next 10 years,” he said. “This is a long-term project and we are betting strongly on Dubai.”