Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has invited contractors to submit bids for the deal to build the 1,500-bed King Abdullah Medical City in the Western region of the kingdom.

Contractors have until 30 September to submit bids for the project. The planned medical city, located 28 kilometres from Mecca and 56km from Jeddah, will include hospital buildings, research centres, administration buildings and a housing community with a total built-up area of nearly 1 million sq m.

The medical buildings will have a total built-up area of 605,869 sq m, the medical service buildings will be 43,098 sq m, the non-medical buildings will be 214,456 sq m, and the utilities serving the development will be 53,840 sq m.

The medical buildings will include the main hospital building, research centre and a rehabilitation centre. The main hospital will have oncology, neurology, cardiology and specialised surgery departments.

A team of US-based RTKL and the local Saudi Diyar is the project engineer. The client representative is King Abdullah Medical City. Contractors were invited to prequalify for the project in October 2012.

The project is one of several medical cities the government is planning, in order to expand its healthcare infrastructure to cope with rapid population growth. In February, contractors have submitted prequalification entries for the contract to build the estimated $1.2bn King Khaled Medical City project in Dammam.

The King Khaled Medical City will cover a total area of 700,000 square metres and will include a 1,500-bed hospital, residential complex, research centre and an international academy. The client for the project is the local King Fahad Specialist Hospital group. The US-based team Aecom/Ellerbe Becket is the architect and lead designer for the medical scheme.

The US’ Vanir Construction Management was awarded the contract to provide project management services for the medical project in January 2012.