Case Construction Equipment, part of CNH Industrial, is reinforcing its commitment to the Gulf and wider Middle East with events planned and partnership programmes set in place. That is not all: in order to be closer to its dealers and customers in the region, CNH Industrial’s senior business director has relocated to Dubai, UAE.

The pipeline of projects planned in the GCC states to date amounts to $2 trillion, it was revealed at a summit of construction sector leaders in Dubai, UAE.

Bahrain’s Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa launched a BD280-million ($738 million) power grid development project last month. The project, aimed at reducing short circuits and ensuring efficient transfer of electricity across the kingdom, will be completed by 2017-end, said a BNA report.

The governments of South Korea and Kuwait will jointly build a new city – The South Saad Al Abdullah New City –  40 km west of the centre of Kuwait at an estimated cost of $4 billon, said a report. The city, which will be spread over an area of 59 sq km, is set to house 25,000 residential units, reported Pulse News.

Two Turkish have consortia won tenders to build sections of a TL7-billion ($2.36 billion) motorway project that will connect to a new bridge spanning Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait. Limak Holding and Cengiz Holding together won a tender to build the Asian section of the road project, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said.

Russia will loan Egypt $25 billion to finance building and operating a nuclear power plant in Egypt, the official gazette said. The two countries signed an agreement last November for Russia to build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant and to extend a loan to cover the cost of construction.

Qatar is well on its way to deliver on its smart city goals and is strongly positioned to lead the way for smart buildings on a global scale, a recent survey by global technology leader Honeywell has revealed. The survey placed Doha as the overall leader for smart buildings in the Middle East.

Kuwait is expected to sign this month a $1-billion contract with a joint venture of Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Turkey’s Limak Construction for its planned South Al Mutlaa City project, according to Naser Khraibut, director of planning at the country’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare.

Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has appointed a consortium of Mitsui, Acwa Power, and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding (DIDIC) to develop the 3,219 MW Ibri and Sohar-3 power generation projects, the largest single tendered independent power project (IPP) in Oman.

Bahraini real estate developer Naseej has awarded a design consultancy contract to SSH, a leading masterplanning, infrastructure, building design and project management firm, for its multimillion-dollar CanalView project coming up at Dilmunia off Muharraq island in the kingdom.

Work on the massive East Sitra Town residential project in Bahrain is progressing as per schedule with 95 per cent of the reclamation phase completed, said a report. The East Sitra Town is one of the biggest projects featuring in the Government Action Plan (GAP) to construct 25,000 housing units by 2018, reported the BNA.

With the rapidly rising demand for green construction and sustainable solutions in the GCC, where the focus is on cutting costs and conserving energy, Bahrain-based Smartsource Construction Solutions is looking at taking its portfolio of green alternatives throughout the region.

Manitowoc Cranes, one of the world’s largest providers of lifting equipment for the construction industry, said it has launched Grove RT880E, the first crane in the Middle East to be fitted with Samson’s K-100 synthetic hoist.

Call to build new Saudi causeways A senior municipal official in Saudi Arabia has proposed the construction of two causeways linking the kingdom with neighbouring Bahrain and Qatar, said a report.

A total of 541 hotels (152,580 rooms) are in the pipeline in the Middle East, a new report has unveiled. STR’s April 2016 Pipeline Report said ‘under contract’ includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.