01 January 2009

Saudi Arabia’s industrial development agency Modon has shortlisted 10 developers for Sudair City, a massive project that will cost Dh146.9 billion ($40 billion) to build, according to a regional press report.

It will be the largest development of its type in Saudi Arabia, exceeding Emaar’s King Abdullah Economic City.
The developers, which are expected to include consortia of companies, will be shortly invited to submit their proposals, according to The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper.
The successful developer will then be responsible for hiring sub-developers for the project, which will be spread across a 258-million-sq-m site north of Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, the report said.
Modon initially invited about 60 companies to bid for the project.
“We did a pre-qualification of all companies that expressed an interest and will issue a request for proposal (RFP) to 10 companies within the next eight weeks,” Tawfig Al Rabiah, the director general of Modon, was quoted as saying.
Despite the economic slowdown hampering construction projects across the Gulf,  Rabiah told the newspaper that Sudair City was progressing according to plan, with a contractor hired last November to build electricity networks and substations for the first phase of the project. He declined to name the contractor, but said the deal was worth Dh102 million ($27.7 million).
“We are also working on the design of the highways around the land,” he was quoted as saying. “This is a long-term project, so the current slowdown should not interfere with our plans.”
Details of the masterplan – which is being designed by Singapore’s Jurong International, a construction consultancy firm – have not been officially released, but plans for the city are understood to include a mix of commercial, industrial, residential, technological, and sport and leisure components, according to the report.
The development is also expected to be supported by the north-south railway, a 2,400-km network under construction in the kingdom, and an airport.

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