Known as the new Emirates Engineering Centre (EEC), the project is estimated to cost AED 1,000 million ($272 million). It calls for the construction of eight hangars for light and heavy maintenance, an aircraft washing bay, administration block, mosque, waste treatment plant, access roads and car parking for 2,000 vehicles.

The new facilities, which will be used by Dubai-based airline Emirates, will be built at a site adjacent to the airport exhibition centre. Surveying, soil testing and clean-up works at the site are due to start in February.

The first phase of the project, for which a tender is expected to be issued by March, will cover the construction of hangars and the proposed administration block. The UK's Fraser Nag & Partnership will partner AdP on the project.

The proposed facilities, to be completed by the end of 2005, will be designed to serve the 575-seat, wide-bodied Airbus A380 aircraft for which Emirates placed orders in November 2001. First deliveries of the A380 are due in 2006 (MEED 16:11:01).

The existing EEC, which is currently used by Emirates, will be demolished and handed over to DCA to make way for the proposed new terminal under the airport expansion scheme.