The local office of Saudi Arabia's Al-Arrab Contracting Company has been awarded the main contract to build seven 20-storey residential towers at Porto Arabia on the Pearl-Qatar island development (MEED 25:11:05).

Each tower will have a built-up area of about 67,700 square metres. The buildings will include four-storey car parks and associated entertainment facilities. Piling work has begun on two towers. The project is due to be completed by 2008. Local property developer The Land is the client.

About 30 plots on Porto Arabia have been sold to individual developers.

The promoter of the Pearl-Qatar, United Development Company (UDC), is developing two plots, and awarded Lebanon's Arabian Construction Company (ACC) a QR 620 million ($170 million) contract in November to build residential towers, townhouses and retail units on two parcels of land in the Porto Arabia district.