Local developer Nakheel has invited companies to bid by 18 June for the infrastructure works for Madinat al-Arab at Dubai Waterfront.

The works include the construction of a road network, earthworks, paving, signage and markings, as well as utilities such as the power supply, water supply network, sewerage, drainage, reservoirs for irrigation and pumping stations, chilled water network for district cooling, and a corridor for a gas system.

The tender has been expected. In February, Nakheel appointed the local office of Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah to carry out the infrastructure design work.

At the time, the developer said it was expecting to tender the infrastructure work for the Madinat al-Arab project in the second quarter of this year.

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 other 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 buildings that have been designed to house 40,000 people in nearly 10,000 apartments. The units will be part of Nakheel’s leasing portfolio.