The $600 million Abu Dhabi International Airport (Adia) expansion project is moving forward with bids to be submitted this month. Once the bidders are shortlisted, work will begin immediately and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2005.

Cityscape 2003, the region's major commercial architecture, property investment and development event, finds 80 per cent of its space booked, according to a report. The event is to open on October 18 and run until October 20.

More than 11,000 visitors from 71 countries attended the first annual edition of Middle East Electricity, which ran at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre in January.

A Swiss aviation lighting specialist currently equipping airports across Europe and Asia is bidding for major projects in Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai.

Union Water and Electricity Company has selected Sogex Oman for an operations and maintenance contract on its Fujairah power and desalination plant. The five-year contract was valued at Dh137.28 million ($37.39 million).

Abu Dhabi will have a state-of-the-art elevated monorail with a frequency of less than five minutes from and to the city, municipality officials said. The proposed project is part of a Dh25.

Tenders for the UAE National Power Grid will be floated during the next quarter. The work will include linking the power grids of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Fujairah to one national grid. The engineering consultant on the Dh500 million ($136 million) project is Electricite de France.

The Public Works Office in the UAE's Western Region is implementing Dh130 million ($35.4 million) worth of maintenance and construction projects. The projects include schools, mosques, medical centres and hospitals.

Licences for 222 building projects were issued by the Sharjah Municipality during February.

Construction work has begun on the main sewage treatment works on the Dh515 million ($140.3 milllion) sewerage treatment project in Ajman.