Italy’s Salini Impregilo has been awarded a $1.3bn contract for the construction of housing in Riyadh.

The project for the Saudi Arabian National Guard involves the construction of 6,000 villas covering 7 square kilometres to the east of Riyadh. Associated infrastructure works include more than 160 km of roads and a sewage treatment plant.

The contract is expected to be completed in five years.

Salini has a strong presence in Saudi Arabia. It is already working on the construction of Line 3, or the Orange Line, of the Riyadh metro system and the Al-Faisaliah District Redevelopment in Riyadh.

The company is also working on projects in the UAE and Oman.

“The Middle East, where we have been present for over 60 years, is a strategic area for our group,” says Piertro Salini, CEO, Salini Impregilo. “Thanks to our capacity of delivering projects on-time and on-budget, we managed to continuously improve our reputation in the area: in 2013, it represented 3 per cent of our turnover, reaching 23 per cent in 2017.”