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01 March 2009

Maintenance service goes online
BAHRAIN’S Ministry of Works (MoW) has launched a maintenance request e-service on the government’s portal www.bahrain.bh.

The service comes as part of the eGovernment Authority (eGA) and government entities’ efforts to provide a fully integrated and modern eGovernment system in line with the strategies of the Bahrain Vision 2030.
The “Building Maintenance Requests” eService is offered to customers with maintenance contracts with the Building Maintenance Governorate in the MoW, whereby they can register and track their maintenance requests around the clock, seven days a week.
Hisham Sater, director of IT in the MoW, urged beneficiaries of the maintenance service to register their requests electronically. “The Ministry receives over 200 maintenance requests per month, and much of our customers and Ministry staff’s time is used up by their prolonged processing procedures via traditional channels. As such, we made this e-service a top priority and worked diligently to simplify the request procedures and offer it online to enable our customers to finish their requests within minutes.”

Lagoon gears for launch
LAGOON Real Estate Development has announced that all units that have been purchased at the $90 million Lagoon commercial freehold project in Amwaj Island have been handed over to their owners. This move, which followed the completion of construction of all buildings as well as electricity connections, has equipped the owners with all necessary means to work and finalise fit-outs of their retail units.
The first shops are expected to open in a month’s time.

Harbour car-park on track
WORK on the 11-floor car-park at the Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) in Bahrain is on schedule. It is a key component of BFH development, with an estimated construction cost of $33 million.
The Commercial East Car Park is now 75 per cent complete, the BFH Holding Company said.
The project extends more than 5,141 sq m and comprises a basement, ground floor and nine additional storeys that together provide approximately 1,700 parking spaces for tenants and visitors of the financial centre.
Terna Contracting is the general contractor of the project, to be delivered by the end of May.

Real estate projects top $2.3tn
THE total value of real estate projects under construction in the GCC is more than $2.39 trillion, reports FutureBrand, a part of the real estate business portal reidin.com. In addition, investments from across the GCC into Dubai’s real estate market have crossed Dh5 billion ($1.36 billion) in 2008, underlining the emirate’s role in driving the UAE’s position in global land sales rankings, which is the fourth highest spot, accounting for 5.8 per cent of worldwide land sales, it said.

Saudis to spend $400bn
SAUDI Arabia plans to spend $400 billion on infrastructure projects in the next five years as the kingdom seeks to benefit from lower construction costs amid the global financial crunch.
“We are talking now about much less construction cost because of the drop in the prices of steel, cement and other building materials,” Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) governor Amr Al Dabbagh said in an interview in Davos, the Swiss Alpine resort that hosted the World Economic Forum.
Saudi companies have cut steel and commodity prices as the global recession weakened demand for their products.
Saudi Arabia is now “accelerating infrastructure development projects to take advantage of surplus capacity,” Al Dabbagh said.

Jotun launches new two in Egypt
JOTUN Paints has launched its newest products – Jotashield SuperDurable and Jotashield Heritage High Build – in Egypt.
The manufacturer further revealed that the newest addition to its exterior paint range is a pure silicone acrylic-based product (SuperDurable) and is specially formulated to protect concrete from extreme climate conditions in the region.
The launch, which was held at the Intercontinental City Stars in Cairo, was attended by senior officials from Jotun and 400 professionals representing the top 42 consultants and contracting offices in Egypt.

Award for Riffa Views contractor
PROJECTS Construction has been presented with a performance award in recognition for providing high standards of work and for achieving the developer’s requirements for the construction of the villas in the north and central areas of the Park estate at the Riffa Views residential golf development in Bahrain.
Riffa Views project director Steve Russell-Rayner said: “Projects Construction has been progressing extremely well with the construction of more than 250 villas. For this reason, we are pleased to present them with the ‘Contractor Overall Performance Award’. We are positive that they will continue to lead by example, setting the bar for the other contractors on-site.”
Stan Bontoft, Projects Construction managing director was presented with the award by Russell-Rayner.

Piling work commences on tower
PILING work has commenced on Nasmah West, a freehold residence in Bahrain being developed by RMK Projects, a division of R M Kooheji & Sons.
This 25-storey tower in Juffair will offer 124 apartments and is expected to be ready by December 2010.
R Lakshmanan, CEO of Sakana, the Islamic mortgage finance provider on the project, said: “Despite current conditions, we believe that we have an extremely attractive proposition – quality apartments at affordable prices, backed by competitive mortgage financing up to 90 per cent of property value and up to 30 years term.”
Ishaq Rashid Al Kooheji, president and CEO of RMK Projects, said the tower consists of two-bedroom apartments. It also has a rooftop pool, a fitness centre, squash court, party hall and a 24-hour security and facilities management services.