Energy City to open in 2010
QATAR’s Energy City, a $2.6 billion property development which is designed to be the region’s first oil and gas industry hub, expects tenants to start moving in by 2010, the company's chief executive officer Hesham Al Emadi said.
“Infrastructure is 70 per cent complete and 25 to 50 per cent of the construction contracts are to be awarded by the end of this year,” he said.
Energy City is part of Lusail that is being developed by Qatari Diar, the property wing of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.
Total work in Energy City, which will house the headquarters for the state-run Qatar Petroleum and other national energy and petrochemical companies, is expected to be completed by 2012, Emadi said.
“We expect to attract big players in the market, such as Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, to open their regional headquarters in the city,” Emadi said.
Lusail will be home to around 200,000 people.

Aquaculture project on track
MORE than 100 Cat machines are moving 20,000 cu m of sand every day to build the world’s largest fully-integrated aquaculture project on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.
The prawn farm run by Saudi Arabia’s National Prawn Company (NPC) will produce 50 tonnes of prawns daily in an environment friendly way. The huge prawn farm uses desert land unsuitable for agriculture or housing, and water from the Red Sea. It does not destroy mangroves, which are the traditional locations for prawn farms, and relies on its own energy with a desalination installation and a 21 MW power plant as well as four mobile Cat generator sets.
According to Rao Ganeswara, earthworks manager at NPC, Caterpillar was chosen because of its proven reputation for quality and reliability, the expert service and support from the local Cat dealer.

Bahrain to build low-cost houses
BAHRAIN might become the first country in the Gulf to set up a centre to build environment friendly and affordable houses.
The International Smart Building Centre will include a factory capable of producing 50,000 homes a year.
“With this technology, we will be able to build houses faster, without compromising their strength,” Housing Minister Shaikh Ibrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said.
Each house will take around six weeks to build using this new technology, but are expected to last for up to 90 years. Eskan Bank and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) had signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the centre in May. It will be established as part of co-operation between Eskan Bank and the China Building Materials Academy, supported by the Unido.

Alfanar wins $133m power contract
ALFANAR Construction Company has been awarded a SR500-million ($133.3-million) contract by the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to construct the Hiteen 380/132 kV substation.
The project comes as part of SEC’s plan to enhance power supply capacity to meet growing demand in Riyadh, particularly the north-western region of the city, where the project will provide electricity to new facilities. The Hiteen station will be linked to several existing substations and the 380 kV overhead transmission lines in Riyadh. It will be completed in 24 months.
At present, Alfanar Construction Company, a member of the Alfanar Group, is executing several key projects for SEC valued at total of more than SR4.5 billion ($1.2 billion) in different parts of the kingdom. Among the most important projects is the 380 kV substation project in west Makkah worth SR444 million ($118.5 million), which will enhance power supply to the Holy Mosque and adjacent areas.

Service area on way at Khalifa port
THE General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP) in Bahrain has unveiled plans to build a multi-storey car park and service area in the vicinity of the newly-launched Khalifa bin Salman Port, providing customs-free storage, warehousing and commercial facilities to companies.
Detailed design and drawings required for construction have been completed and will be provided to interested potential developers.
The GOP is to invite bids for the project on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis for 25 years. Located behind the customs gates, the service centre will house 6,500 sq m of office space, general warehousing facilities, and a 4,000-capacity multi-storey car-park for the storage of imported cars prior to their re-distribution in the country or region.

Communication towers installed
TOWER Specialist Manufacturing Company (Tosmac) has completed designing, fabricating and installing a 70-m-high communication tower at Saudi Ceramics’ factory in the Second Industrial City in Riyadh, as well as another 25-m-high tower at the company’s administration offices in Olaya.
The two towers will be connected to streamline the work processes and help in data transfer between the company’s administration and production facilities.
Tosmac was established in 2004 and closely collaborates with the tower specialist division of Consulting and Design Engineering, a leading engineering consultancy office specialised in communication.
It is managed by a skilled multinational workforce and its factory is equipped with the latest European machinery to produce high-quality towers and design, engineering and fabrication has been made easy through the use of reliable and sophisticated CAD software.