Abu Dhabi government-controlled investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company has received bids for the contract to design and build a campus on Saadiyat Island for New York University Abu Dhabi.

The bidders include Greece’s Aktor; the local/UK Al-Futtaim Carillion; a joint venture of the UAE’s Al-Habtoor Engineering Enterprises and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East); the local Arabtec Construction; and Saudi Arabia’s El-Seif Engineering & Contracting; and the local National Projects Construction (NPC) with Singapore’s Sembawang Engineers & Contractors.

The campus will be built at Saadiyat Island’s cultural district. It will have lecture theatres, a library, IT buildings, laboratories, accommodation and sports facilities (MEED 1:1:10).

The US’ Rafael Vinoly Architects has prepared the university masterplan.

Mubadala is developing two other universities in Abu Dhabi: Zayed University in Khalifa City and the Paris-Sorbonne University campus on Reem Island. The Al-Habtoor/Murray & Roberts joint venture is the construction contractor on both schemes.

In Al-Ain, Mubadala is also tendering a contract to build the third phase of the UAE University campus.

The successful bidder will replace Oger Abu Dhabi, the local affiliate of Saudi Oger, which was awarded an estimated AED1.5bn ($408m) construction contract for the first three phases of the project in late 2006. Oger has completed the first two phases, but has since agreed with the client to withdraw from the project.