Renowned local contracting firm Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company has added yet another commercial complex to its extensive portfolio of successfully completed projects as it is handed over the Dar Al Awadi office tower and shopping mall to its owners at the end of last month (June).

For Ahmadiah – which has a track record of handling several other similar projects over its 51-year history – the task presented a few challenges though none that it could not tackle efficiently, according to a spokesman for the contract.
Highlighting these challenges, he says: “The major challenge on this project was the erection of 100 tonnes of steelwork at a height of 150 m. To achieve this, we had to erect a platform with a 9 m cantilever at this height to accomplish a high standard of finish.  The building stands at 171 m including the mast.”
“Besides this, we have ensured that the building has been constructed to a very high standard of construction.”
Ahmadiah started work on the KD15.2 million ($52 million) contract for the project in April 2002.
Apart from the Dar Al Awadi tower, Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company has been busy with a string of other high-profile projects.
Among the largest projects in hand is the KD40 million ($138 million) phase 1 package on Al-Khiran Pearl City. The contract covers infrastructure work for 1,200 residential plots on 2.5 million sq m of land close to the border with Saudi Arabia.   Ahmadiah started work on the project in May last year and expects to complete it by end of next October. It involves laying of 49 km of sanitary sewer pipes (900 mm in diameter), six km of microtunneling (dia 700 to 900 mm), 32 km of storm water pipes (dia up to 700 mm) and 63 km of water supply and irrigation pipes (dia up to 400 mm); construction of three 40-m-high water reservoirs with a capacity of 2,600 cu m each and 54 substations; installation of power and telephone cables; and soft landscaping and road works, according to regional and business development manager Georges Hage.
Pearl City will be developed in phases over a total area of 6,500 hectares, and will eventually be home to about 50,000 residents. The client is the local La’Ala al-Kuwait Real Estate Company while the consultant is a team of the UK’s Buro Happold with the local Gulf Consult.
Ahmadiah is also working on other projects, namely the Al Hamra Complex, Al Dhow Tower, the Cardiac Hospital, Arraya office tower, Al Manshar Rotana Suites Hotel and others.
The Al Hamra Tower and Mall Complex for the Al Hamra Real Estate Company will have a total built-up area of 235,000 sq m. Work on the mixed-use project – which includes a 70-storey tower – started in June last year and is due for completion in December 2007.

Ahmadiah started construction of the 34-storey Al Dhow in March last year and expects to complete it by March 2006. Al Mal Real Estate is the client on the office tower, which will feature a high standard of finishes.
Work on the 26,000 sq m – 120-bed Cardiac Hospital, for the Ministry of Health, was started last June and will be completed by next May.
Work on the 56-storey Arraya office tower also started in February this year and will be completed by February 2008. Salhia Real Estate Company is the client of this high-standard finishes office tower.
Work on Al Manshar Rotana Suites Hotel in Fahaheel started last March and is due for completion by mid-July 2006. Al Tamdeen Real Esate Company is the client of this five-star 155-suite hotel.
Ahmadiah has recently completed work on the five-star Safir Marina Mall Hotel – a 95-suite hotel project for the United Realty Company.
Other successfully completed major projects include the Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS) headquarters, a 24-storey office tower with a total built-up area of 66,000 sq m.  The client is the Wafra Real Estate Company.
Fahaheel Waterfront scheme, undertaken for client Tamdeen Real Estate Company, which stretches along 2 km of the Fahaheel seafront. It comprises an entertainment pier building, a market pier building, a bazaar mall, a lighthouse tower, boat workshops, a leisure service building with four cinemas, restaurants, a central cooling plant tower, an ice factory, a 6,500 sq m lagoon area, a marina for 100 yachts with two harbours (one for leisure boats and the other for fishermen), 50,000 sq m of roads and a 500-slot car park.  This involved a total built-up area of 40,000 sq m.
The highly sophisticated 33-storey Arraya Centre project for Salhia Real Estate Company, which offers a total built-up area of 65,000 sq m. It comprises a top-class shopping mall, a convention hall building, the 310-room four-star Marriott Courtyard Hotel, a separate seven-level car-park and two 33 m, two-level bridges, each connecting the car park to the mall.

Ahmadiah, one of the Gulf’s leading contractors, has earned a solid reputation for its reliability, exceptional quality, the ability to overcome challenging technical problems and flexibility in understanding the various requirements of the clients and their interests. It is this reputation that has earned Ahmadiah a variety of repeat clients and impressive growth.
Says Hage: “Over the years, Ahmadiah has developed into a contractor that tackles just about anything – from power stations to roads to skyscrapers – and has given shape to many of Kuwait’s most striking landmarks as well.”
These include large infrastructure projects (the Sixth Ring Road, sanitary renovation, airport runway and bridges), industrial projects (thermal power stations, cement factories, flour mill silos), state-of-the art palaces (Bayan Palace and Amiri Diwan), sophisticated hospitals, important headquarters (Arab Fund, Gulf Investment Corporation and Kuwait Airways Corporation), five-star hotels (Meridien, Marriott and Hilton Resort Mangaf); banks (Kuwait Finance House, Al Ahli, Burgan, and Commercial Bank of Kuwait), malls and commercial centres (Arraya, Marina Mall, Salhia, Al Fanaar, Al Bustan), office and residential towers, waterfronts (Al Sharq, Salmiya and Fahaheel).
Ahmadiah states that it is one among the very few – if not the only company – to whom the private sector in Kuwait entrusts with total cost-plus jobs.