Bahrain has announced plans to build a $175 million (BD66.15 million) indoor ski resort on one of its islands. The Iceberg Tower is planned south of the old Shaikh Hamad causeway bridge linking Manama and Muharraq, near the Coastguard headquarters. A feasibility study will take eight weeks, according to the Economic Development Board (EDB).
Tenders submitted by 22 contractors for four government projects in Bahrain were opened in public for the first time last month. Prices quoted by each contractor were displayed on a screen.
Engineering firms have submitted bids for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for a 200 km pipeline to the state-owned Oman Refinery Company. The estimated $175 million pipeline will link the export terminal of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) at Mina Al Fahal in Muscat to the planned Sohar refinery in the west of the capital.
Work on a new convention centre at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) is slated for completion by the year-end. The two existing exhibition halls are also being upgraded, with work set for completion by the end of next year.
Drawings and models for the $250 million new city for learning, part of the American University in Cairo, were recently unveiled. The new campus is situated on a 260-acre desert site 20 miles east of Cairo. The university, expected to be the anchor for development of New Cairo, is a planned city expected to house three million residents.
Qatar will build new hospitals in the northern and southern parts of the country, Minister of Public Health Dr Hajar Ahmad Hajar has said. The minister said there was a shortage of beds at the Hamad, Women's and Rumailah hospitals, which are run by the Hamad Medical Corporation.
The contractors on Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company's (RasGas) third train in Qatar have achieved 10 million man-hours without a lost time incident. Some 6,000 employees from 30 countries are now working at the construction site, local press reported. Work on the project began in April 2001 and is scheduled for an early 2004 start-up.
Preliminary work has started on a BD22 million ($58.35 million) highway to a resort city under construction in the south east of Bahrain. The project involves the construction of 27 km of dual two-lane arterial highway and associated junctions, from the Hawar Highway near Askar to the Durrat Al Bahrain resort near Ras Al Barr.
Work on a new youth hostel in Bahrain's Sanabis area is nearing completion. The hostel building is ready and workers are now concentrating on walkways and related external works. The Works and Housing Ministry has also approved an approach road leading to the hostel.
The managers of Union's authorised dealers and Union Design Centres in each of the company's core international markets are undergoing a two-week training programme in London. The UK-based Union supplies architectural hardware and locks specified by architects, local authorities and government bodies.
Tenders for the construction of a water plant in Hidd are to be issued later this year. The project, which will have a capacity of 60 million gallons per day (mgpd), will be implemented as the third phase expansion of the Hidd power and water plant. Six contractors have submitted bids - ranging from BD1.27 million and BD3.77 million ($3.
Site work has begun on Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) Potline 5 expansion project that will boost production by 307,000 tonnes per year (tpy) to reach a total of more than 827,000 tpy. By the time the project is completed in mid-2005, some 4,000 workers will have been engaged in the civil, mechanical and electrical segments of various contracts.
