Gulf Construction Online - Skyline powers ahead in Bahrain

Regional News

The Dragon hotel and resort ... Skyline project.

Skyline powers ahead in Bahrain

01 November 2010

SKYLINE Trading Corporation, a veteran civil contracting and trading company based in Bahrain, says its ability to offer a range of services under one roof has given it an edge in today’s challenging market.

A group of separately operated companies possessing a Grade ‘A’ licence to carry out civil contracting and general trading activities, Skyline Trading has been in operation for the past 21 years, says contracts manager Syed Afros Quadri.

He continues: “Since its inception in 1989, Skyline has been providing professional services in the construction and development of many projects in Bahrain and enjoys a good reputation with the island’s consultants and building contractors.

“Apart from establishing a good reputation, Skyline has expanded extensively and is now able to provide civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, drainage and fire-fighting, landscape and irrigation, and aluminium and glazing works under one roof. This has resulted in us being able to offer high-quality work at competitive prices and win several projects in the current competitive market.”

Skyline began operations with a team of six members and today the company has more than 650 employees on its rolls, apart from the separately operated companies. These companies include Empac Trading and Contracting for electro-mechanical work, Aqua-Masters, which specialises in the construction of swimming pools and landscape architecture, and the newly-formed Aluminium Line Company, which supplies and installs aluminium doors, windows and curtain walls. Skyline is also the official sole distributor in Bahrain for Sigma Paints, the leading paint brand.

Over the last two decades, Skyline has been involved with a diverse mix of projects from luxury residences to health centres and hotels, testimony to its strength as a leading construction player, says Quadri.

A civil engineer, Quadri manages Skyline’s civil construction, quantity survey and accounts departments, while co-ordinating with the managers of the other companies as a team leader.

Skyline was the first contractor to carry out the initial construction work on six model villas at Amwaj Islands, successfully overcoming logistic hurdles when there was no proper access to the site at the time.

Since then, Skyline has gone on to notch up several other successes at Amwaj, including the 12-storey Residence and 16-storey Peak towers, the Dragon, the Lagoona villas, the Loft villas, Faye Beach villas, the Mirage I, II, III and IV villas and apartments, the Zawia duplex villas, Saraya Al Bahar villas, and the landmark Pavilion club.

The Dragon hotel and resort draws its architectural inspiration from the mythical dragon. Its 20 attached luxurious villas with independent pools and wooden deck overlooking the beachfront are designed to resemble the lower half of a dragon including the tail while the apartments building, which includes a magnificent restaurant and a large swimming pool, is designed to resemble a dragon’s upper torso and its fins.

The Loft consists of 17 semi-detached two-storey luxurious villas that have large glazed windows facing the sea. It features a large common swimming pool with pillars for seating built within, a spacious pool deck which is further extended by a wooden deck touching the sea, shaded car-parks and is beautifully landscaped.

The Pavilion, meanwhile, is a distinctive landmark composed of a massive central cylindrical-shaped cast-in-situ concrete shaft with a sloped roof over and partly covered in a semi-circular fabric roof structure for its amphitheatre.
Other major projects in Skyline’s portfolio include the kidney dialysis centre at Muharraq, the 15-storey Al Safir Hotel in Juffair, the heath centre at Nuwaidrat, and the Abdul Rehman Kanoo School at Salmabad.

In addition, Skyline has built the 25-villa Saar Vista and an eight-villa complex for Basrec at Saar, as well as the 22-villa Arabian Homes at Jasrah for Y B A Kanoo.

Saar Vista consists of 25 semi-detached villas with facilities including CCTV, a play area, clubhouse, pool, tennis court, a central fountain, and its own substation.

Skyline is well supported by a quantity survey department, where engineers deal with pre-tender work, and an architecture department, where its draftsmen use the latest software packages.

Quadri says he is proud of Skyline’s team of professionals, which includes Bahrainis and expatriates of all nationalities, who “give their best on every project”.

Attributing Skyline’s success to team work Quadri says that staff input also plays a vital role in ensuring that the company “renders the best service on all its projects and to all its customers”.