Dubai-based developer Nakheel has appointed the local office of Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah to carry out the infrastructure design work for its latest development in the Jebel Ali area.

The company is expecting to tender the infrastructure work for the Madinat al-Arab project by the second quarter of this year, according to a statement from the developer.

The Madinat al-Arab development is set to be a 5.2 million-square-metre site with 266 mixed-use land plots, located at the Dubai Waterfront scheme in Jebel Ali.

Nakheel originally announced the $35bn Waterfront scheme in 2006, but it was subsequently put on hold following financial difficulties.

Despite this, at the end of last year Nakheel appointed six Dubai-based engineering and architectural consultants for the design and construction supervision of its AED7.5bn ($2bn) Jebel Ali Gardens development, also located at the Waterfront scheme.

The appointed consultants are:

• Meecon (Middle East Engineering Consultants)
• Golden Square Engineering
• Eng. Adnan Saffarini Office
• Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects & Engineers
• Design Centre Architects & Engineers Consultants
• Bel-Yoahah Architectural & Engineering Consultants

The project, which will be built in the Dubai Waterfront area to the south of Jebel Ali Free Zone, includes 42 towers that have been designed to house 40,000 people in nearly 10,000 apartments. The units will be part of Nakheel’s leasing portfolio.

At the time, Nakheel said tenders for the construction work will be released in the first quarter of 2017, and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2020.