Plan to turn former Jubeiha Amusement Park into public park announced

AMMAN — Implementation of a master plan to transform Jubeiha Amusement Park, which authorities shut down permanently last year, into a public park is scheduled for next year, a municipal official said on Tuesday.

The Jubeiha Amusement Park will become a gated public park that offers entertainment services and an outdoor space for various activities for all categories of the community, including families, the youth and children, Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) Engineering Executive Nimeh Qatanani told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

GAM in September 2017 closed down the Jubeiha Amusement Park due to the deteriorated state of its rides and structures. It stated at the time that “safety concerns prompted the decision”, noting that most of the park’s rides and structures had exceeded their lifespan.

The amusement park was built in 1987 over an area of 54 dunums in the north of the capital, featuring a number of rides for different age groups which used to attract over half a million visitors each year from Jordan and neighbouring countries, according to GAM.

“We are now in the process of drawing up a master plan for the park which will preserve Jubeiha park’s basic characteristics as it has been constituting an integral part of Amman’s heritage and landscape for decades,” Qatanani said, adding that the park will be a “breathing space” for Ammanites while preserving the park’s forest trees.

“Some 95 per cent of the park is covered with trees, none of which will be removed. On the contrary, the plan seeks to capitalise on that and transform the park into a picnicking area where families can have barbeques and children can play safely,” she noted.

In addition, the park’s buildings will be rehabilitated and turned into a bazaar that offers visitors ornaments, food and beverages, the official continued, noting that it will also provide people with an opportunity to start income-generating schemes.

Qatanani said that GAM cadre will oversee and finance the transformation. “The master plan needs six months to be completed. The plan is to start on the transformation of Jubeiha park next year,” she announced.

The rehabilitation of Jubeiha Amusement Park, estimated at $50 million, was among the investment opportunities Jordan showcased during the 2015 World Economic Forum. The proposed investment was one of the Kingdom’s investment priorities in the urban development sector.