Northern Town infrastructure bids in

11 August 2006
Bids were opened on 2 August for the consultancy contracts on four infrastructure packages on the estimated $4,000 million North Bahrain New Towns (NBNT) project. During the first phase, the scheme will create homes for more than 100,000 residents over an area of about 3 million square metres off the northwest coast of the main island. Dredging and reclamation is under way by Royal Boskalis Westminster and Van Oord Bahrain, both of the Netherlands (MEED 7:10:05).
For the roads, bridges and utilities design contract, the UK's Hyder Consulting is low bidder, followed by the UK/local joint venture of Watson/Khonji. The other bidders are Beirut-based Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) and the UK's Atkins.

On the consultancy contract for the sewage treatment plant, Atkins is low bidder at BD 0.6 million ($1.6 million), 24 per cent cheaper than Watson/Khonji at BD 0.8 million ($2.1 million). The other bidders are Hyder, French Town Planning which is also the overall consultant on the NBNT project and Dar al-Handasah.

For the landscape architecture and quay wall package, the three bidders each priced two different options: Dar al-Handasah offered BD 1.4 million for the landscaping ($3.7 million) and BD 0.9 million ($2.4 million) for the quay walls; French Town Planning offered BD 2 million for design ($5.3 million) and BD 2.1 million ($5.5 million) for construction supervision of both the landscaping and quay walls; and Atkins priced two options at BD 3 million ($7.9 million) and BD 3.2 million ($8.4 million) bundling design and supervision of both landscaping and quay walls.

On the social housing and associated infrastructure design package, only two bids were opened. French Town Planning, pricing only design, offered BD 3.1 million ($8.2 million) for the main option covering 3,100 units and BD 0.5 million ($1.3 million) for an option of 300 units. Dar al-Handasah priced design of the larger option at BD 2.9 million ($7.6 million) and also offered a price of BD 10.6 million ($27.9 million) for construction

supervision.

The project is being handled by the Works & Housing Ministry and the Housing & Urban Development Committee.

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