Work at the Marina West, Bahrain’s first gated residential beachfront community, was launched last month with the commencement of piling works that will create the foundations for its 11 towers. Work on the sub-structure will follow soon and will be succeeded by the construction of the superstructures.

A massive twin development for the BD250 million ($663 million) Bahrain City Centre has won the go-ahead from the Manama Municipal Council. To be built on a 211,023 sq m plot, the project would be linked to its twin by a bridge and includes offices, shops, furnished apartments, flats and a huge hotel, according to the developer MAF Shopping Malls.

Al Hidaya to build twin towers RealCapita has awarded a BD3 million ($8 million) construction contract to Bahrain-based Al Hidaya Contracting to build its BD4.5 million ($12 million) Real Suites twin towers.

Saudi Arabia’s Altaiseer Aluminium Factory has embarked on an expansion which will see the company add a fourth extrusion line at a cost of SR45 million (12 million). A major equipment supplier from Germany has been awarded the contract to design, manufacture, supply and install the new line, according to vice president Nasser Al Fattouh.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded South Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction a KD180 million ($621 million) contract to build a gathering centre with a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the Sabriyah field near the Iraqi border.

Yemen is in talks with a Dubai company to build a 14-km bridge across the Red Sea to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. A UAE newspaper said the project, estimated to cost $1 billion, could be launched within two months.“The company and the government are in negotiations,” a senior Yemeni government official told the Al Bayan newspaper.

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is in talks with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to help develop  the $52 billion King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) into the world’s first ‘smart city’.

TCM forklifts are increasingly finding favour throughout the world on a diverse range of operations, according to Aljomaih Equipment Company, the Saudi dealer for the Japanese equipment giant. “Thanks to its pioneering vision, TCM now has a wide range of forklifts to suit every possible need,” explains Aljomaih general manager Abdullah Al Ali.

ABB has won a QR1.6 billion ($450 million) contract from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) to expand the country’s power transmission system. The work includes three substations and a telecommunication package for Qatar's Phase VII grid expansion – a countrywide effort to increase power in areas of high growth.

A SR2 billion ($$533 million) high-rise commercial and residential development to be built in Jeddah is being billed as the first-ever skyscraper project in Saudi Arabia’s western region.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Heir Apparent of the State of Qatar, last month laid the foundation stone for the Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) project, a world-scale integrated project that will make Qatar the GTL capital of the world.

World-renowned architect Cesar Pelli has drawn up an incandescent architectural design for the new Sidra Medical Research Centre in Qatar, which both reflects and celebrates the sky.

International consultant Systra-MVA is undertaking a study on how to overhaul Bahrain’s public transportation, with a view to developing an integrated transport strategy for the kingdom.

A consortium including France’s Suez closed an $800 million deal to finance the construction of a power and water plant and the purchase of another power plant, both in Oman. Suez won the contract to build the 678-MW Barka power and water desalination facility in Oman in December.

Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, has signed a joint venture agreement to build a seamless tube mill in Saudi Arabia. The mill, which it will build together with the Bin Jarallah Group, would have a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year and is expected to be completed by the last quarter 2009.

Al-Osais Contracting has won a contract to build a residential and recreational complex for Saudi Aramco in Khurais, Saudi Arabia. The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art camp to accommodate 1,150 bachelors, over an area of 65,000 sq m.

UNIVERSAL Halon Treatment Factory (UHTF) has embarked on a marketing blitz of its environmental expertise in the recovery and recycling of halon, which is being phased out of production across the world.

Road projects worth more than BD200 million ($531.91 million) are currently under construction in Bahrain, a government official has revealed. New flyovers and traffic signals will substantially ease traffic congestion, said Works and Housing Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Roads Essam Khalaf.

Saudi company Saleh and Abdulaziz Abahsain (S & A Abahsain) has commenced construction of a fibreglass-manufacturing factory at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP) in Bahrain. Called Abahsain Fiberglass, the new factory will have a capacity of 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes per year.