Top firms vying for rail deal
A NUMBER of international companies are among the six consortiums bidding to build four stations along a 450-km Makkah-Madinah railway in Saudi Arabia. These include German transport group Deutsche Bahn, Italy’s Astaldi, British firm WS Atkins, France’s Alstom, Austria’s Strabag, and Singapore-based ST Engineering, the Saudi Railway Organisation (SRO) said.
Each of the foreign companies has teamed up with a Saudi partner to compete for this phase of the link. SRO has received the technical and financial offers for the construction of the Haramain High Speed Rail (HHR) stations, according to the organisation.
The high-speed Haramain Railway will link Makkah and Madinah to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, a key entry point for millions of pilgrims, and to King Abdullah Economic City, currently under construction in Rabigh.
Galfar to build $101m harbour
OMAN’S Galfar Engineering and Contracting has won a contract worth RO39 million ($101.3 million) to build a harbour in an island off the southern coast of Oman.
The project on Al Halaniyat Islands involves the construction of 800 m of breakwater, 500 m of quay walls and wharves, a pair of floating steel pontoons and a ramp for landing craft. The company will also undertake reclamation work involving around one million cu m of rock and build a road network.
Galfar is expected to complete the project in 30 months after a three-month mobilisation period. The harbour is expected to be operational by 2013.
ABB’s smart system for PNU
ABB, a leading power and automation technology group, has won an order from Saudi Oger to provide its KNX intelligent building control system to Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) at the new site in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
ABB’s KNX-based technology will allow university facility management to automatically and remotely control lighting and shading through one single interface, enabling significant reductions in energy usage. KNX is a global standard for home and building automation control, designed to increase comfort and energy efficiency.
32 firms competing for Oman deal
MORE than 32 international companies are in the race to win the contract for a railway project in Oman.
An Omani official source said the various companies from Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Malaysia, America and China, are vying for the project that is part of a planned 1,940-km GCC rail network. Some 306 km of it links Oman and the UAE and the rest of it links all the other GCC countries.

GE to build training centre
GE said it will add a training centre at the site of the new GE Energy Manufacturing Technology Centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The new advanced training centre will bring GE’s total investment in the Dammam site to approximately SR375 million ($100 million). It will have state-of-the-art facilities and offer the latest technology and managerial courses for college students, field engineers and other power industry professionals throughout the region.
Developed in association with GE’s joint venture partner Ali A Tamimi Company, the technology centre encompasses more than 10,000 sq m and adds substantial capability to provide advanced gas turbine service while also reducing cycle time.
Sakana appoints key project team
BAHRAIN-based Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions has appointed R P Construction as contractor and Akbari Architects as project consultant for the Sakana Busaiteen project, a heritage residence for the contemporary Bahraini family.
The project, being developed in Busaiteen, Bahrain, is the first property development of Sakana, an innovative Islamic mortgage finance provider. It comprises 10 heritage residences, each being an individual self-contained three-storey unit to gather the family under one roof. The compound will offer a selection of facilities including parking, lift, swimming pool and a garden area. The first phase of the project comprising five heritage residences is expected to be completed in one year.
ABC signs deal for Kanoo Tower
ARAB Banking Corporation (ABC) has signed a BD13.5-million ($35.8 million) new committed bilateral term loan with Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo (Kanoo Group of Companies), for the financing of the Kanoo Tower in the Diplomatic Area of Manama, Bahrain.
The building will rise to 24 storeys.

$6.9bn Doha port project to begin
WORK on the ambitious QR25 billion ($6.9 billion) New Doha Port project is expected to begin soon as the contract for canal excavation work is all set to be awarded this month. Some 46 local as well as foreign companies have submitted bids for the canal excavation and platform building contract – estimated at QR6 billion ($1.6 million) – and eight of them have been short listed for the final award.
The entire project, likely to be completed by 2015, is to be executed in three phases with the design and consultancy work as well as environmental impact assessment studies having already been completed. The project will be divided into 21 packages and further tenders would be floated in the first quarter of next year.