BUILDING DREAMS: The Sidharthan Kizhkutt Story – 50 Years at The Kanoo Group | A Four-Part Series
Sidney now has three children and a wife—all living with him in Dubai, the city that became his home.
He has kept his position all these years and became the go-to person in the Parts Department, the man everyone turned to when they needed answers.
He is grateful. Deeply, endlessly grateful.
Coming from a place where not everyone has the chance to better their life, with very little formal education, Sidney knows that The Kanoo Group was the one who helped him pursue a life of change for the better. He feels indebted, forever thankful to the Kanoo family for the opportunity they gave him all those years ago.
As ironic as it may sound, The Kanoo Group—a family business that rose together with the unprecedented rise of the UAE—truly became family for Sidney.
Witnessing a City Transform
The Dubai that Sidney knows now is unrecognizable from the one he arrived in.
Sheikh Zayed Road, once a single dusty lane with camels resting by the roadside, is now one of the main highways in Dubai and the road that connects all seven emirates. It's not just the busiest road in Dubai—it's lined with towering high-rise buildings housing residential apartments and serviced hotel apartments. It has become the city's beating heart, a twelve-lane highway pulsing with life and ambition.
Sidney witnessed the construction of the Burj Al Arab, the world's only seven-star hotel, rising from the sea like a sail catching wind.
He watched the Burj Khalifa take shape, beginning in 2004. The exterior was completed five years later, and the building opened in 2010 as the centerpiece of Downtown Dubai—the tallest building in the world.
Name any tourist spot in the UAE today, and Sidney has seen it grow from bare ground to the landmark it is now. The rapid construction since the 1980s produced one of the world's densest skylines. Extensive land reclamation projects added more than 300 kilometers of artificial coastline. The luxury real estate market exploded.
Dubai's economy now centers on trade, tourism, aviation, financial services, and real estate.
At the Center of It All
And The Kanoo Group? It lies at the center of it all.
Sidney sold parts to the machines and cranes that built this city. Every tower that pierced the sky, every highway that connected the emirates, every ambitious project that seemed impossible—somewhere in that story, there was a part that passed through Sidney's hands.
He didn't just witness Dubai's transformation. He was part of building it, one part at a time, one sale at a time, one day at a time—for fifty years.
From a young man on a boat crossing the Arabian Sea, to the heartbeat of a Parts Department that helped construct a modern marvel, Sidney's story is woven into the very fabric of this city.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.
This is the final episode of the 4-part series of Sidney's story. READ the part-series here:
Thank you for reading Sidharthan Kizhkutt 50 years story with The Kanoo Group.
