Five companies submitted bids for the contract, which covers the construction of the main buildings and external works.

The project calls for the development of 1.6 kilometres of beachfront at Fahaheel, south of Kuwait City. It is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of 2004.

The project will include the construction of a 17,000-square-metre retail area, a food court with six restaurants, a mixed-use vegetable and fruit market and parking facilities for over 1,200 vehicles. It will also entail the construction of a marina for 160 vessels, an inner harbour, a dhow harbour, recreational facilities and related civil and mechanical works.

The client is the local Tamdeen Real Estate Company, which signed in mid 2001 a build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement with Kuwait Municipality and the Finance Ministry, and committed to invest KD 20 million ($64 million) over a four-year period.

Contracts have been awarded for all the other packages on the scheme. Worth a total of about KD 4.6 million ($15 million), the packages cover site preparation, removal of an existing Kuwait Oil Company pipeline, construction of an onshore culvert and marine works.

The consultant is the local Gulf Consult. The US' Cambridge Seven Associates,along with Amman-based Dar al-Omran, is the architect. The marine consultant is the UK's Mouchel; the project manager is the local Project Analysis & Control Systems (Projacs).