Hyder will design infrastructure for the five clusters of villas, prepare tender documents for the construction contracts and supervise the contractors’ work on site.

Aldar awarded three major construction contracts on the scheme in mid July. The deals, worth up to AED2.6bn ($706m) each, were awarded to the local Al-Jaber Group, Saudi Arabia’s El-Seif Engineering & Contracting, and Malaysia’s Pembinaan SPK.

The project is the largest housing scheme to move ahead in the UAE this year. It involves the construction of 5,000 villas close to Abu Dhabi International airport and the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway (MEED 4:9:08).

The government is funding the scheme to ensure it can go ahead during the financial crisis. Private developers have stopped work on most major UAE real estate projects.

Al-Falah villas is part of Abu Dhabi’s housing plan for the families of UAE nationals. Despite massive investment in projects to build tower blocks at developments such as Reem Island and Al-Raha Beach, local families still prefer to live in villas.