Contractors have submitted bids for the contract to build an estimated QR1bn ($274) car park at Education City, a 14-square-kilometre development on the western edge of Doha.

Astad Project Management, the project management arm of Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Foundation, received bids for the contract to build the four-storey above-ground South-East Car Park on 12 March.

The South-East Car Park scheme is the third major car parking project Astad has tendered in the past 16 months at the Education City development. In the fourth quarter of 2011 Astad awarded Greece’s Terna an estimated QR500m ($151m) contract to build the North-East Car Park. That project will have two underground levels, covering a total area of about 94,000 square metres.

In May 2011, at least seven contractors bid for the main construction package on the estimated $225m West Car Park, which will comprise four storeys above ground. Contractors are expecting the West Car Park contract to be awarded by the end of April, according to sources in Doha.

Astad is managing the planned projects at Education City on behalf of the Qatar Foundation. Qatar Foundation formed Astad Project Management as a strategic partnership with Qatar Petroleum in 2009. In 2011, five construction contracts worth more an estimated $938m were awarded for projects at the Education City development.