Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) received bids from contractors on 26 January for the contract to build an estimated AED2.6bn ($708m) hospital in Al-Ain.

The bidders include:

• Al-Faraa General Contracting Company (local)
• Al-Habtoor Leighton Group (local/Australia)/Murray & Roberts Contractors (South Africa)
• Al-Shafar General Contracting (local)/National Projects Construction (local)
• Arabtec Construction (local)
• Brookfield Multiplex (Canada)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)
• Ed Zublin (Germany)

The contract involves building a 688-bed hospital. It will cover 358,000 square metres, with underground parking for 1,500 cars. The design has been prepared by a joint venture of Switzerland’s ICME Healthcare, Germany’s Faust Consult Architects & Engineers and Obermeyer Engineering Consulting, also from Germany.

Seha decided to retender the hospital last year. It first tendered the contract in 2010 and had selected the joint venture of the local Al-Shafar General Contracting and the local National Projects Construction (NPC) with Japan’s Shimizu Corporation for the works.

Earlier in 2011, Seha awarded the estimated $800m construction contract for Mafraq hospital to the joint venture of the local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East). That hospital will have 690 beds. It will cover an area of 245,000 sq m and will have underground parking for 1,300 vehicles. US-based Burt Hill is the design consultant.

US-based Allen & Shariff Corporation is project manager for both schemes.

Seha is also developing the Tawam hospital project in Al-Ain. Abu Dhabi-government controlled investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company was previously handling the project. It cancelled tenders for the project in early February 2010 after contractors had submitted bid for the design and build contract.