Dubai-based Emaar Properties and Orascom Hotels & Investment and Talaat Moustapha Group, both local, are bidding ahead of an award in early August for a concession to develop a major project on the Mediterranean coast. The 1,560-acre site, located between Sidi Abdul Rahman and Al-Alamein, is being sold by Egyptian General Company for Tourism & Hotels (Egoth). Orascom said that it plans to build between 3,000 and 5,000 hotel rooms in a new town that would also include a marina, a golf course, a hospital, schools and a health spa. The development is estimated to be worth $6,800 million. Under the scope of its privatisation programme, Egoth is selling a number of sites. It expects to begin soon the bidding process to sell another of its sites ? a 122-room hotel in Ein el-Sokhna.