Astad, the project management arm of Qatar Petroleum (QP), has extended the bid deadline for two construction projects in Education City, on the outskirts of Doha.

Groups now have until 10 October to submit bids for the contract to build the estimated $80-100m College of Communication and Media building and until 17 October to submit prices for the estimated QR800m North East underground car park.

Both projects had a previous submission date of 3 October.

The 3-storey College of Communication and Media building will have a built up area of 25,000 square metres (sq m). The project is expected to take 20 months to complete.

The building was designed by Antoine Predock and the executive architect for the project is Burns & McDonnell. The college will be affiliated to the Northwestern University.

The North East underground car park will have two levels, which will cover a total area of approximately 94,000 sq m.

There are believed to be about 16 groups considering submitting bids for the project.

Astad is managing the projects on behalf of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Social Development (QF). QF is currently tendering a number of large construction contracts for its Education City development.

The client has set a submission date of 17 October for the contract to build the estimated QR1bn Qatar Foundation headquarters building. In the past few months QF has also received bids for contracts to build the estimated QR1bn new Qatar Central Library and the estimated QR850m Faculty of Islamic Studies (MEED 26:9:10)