Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has invited contractors to submit bids for two major hospital construction contracts in the north and south of the kingdom.

The first contract is to build the second phase of the Prince Mohamed Bin Abdulaziz Medical City, with the first phase currently under construction in the north of the country. The second phase will involve building hospital buildings and other facilities which will add an additional 500 beds to the 50-bed facility first phase, which is currently under construction.

The second contract is to build the second phase of the King Faisal Medical City in the south of the country. The contract will also involve building hospital buildings and other facilities which will add an additional 850 beds to the 500-bed facility currently under development.

The Health Ministry has set a submission date of 11 June for both tenders.

In February 2012, the Health Ministry awarded an estimated SR642m ($171.2m) contract to the local Al-Fouzan Trading & General Construction Company to build the first phase of the estimated SR4bn King Faisal Medical City, which will be located in the southern province of the kingdom.

Al-Fouzan will build the 500-bed first phase of the medical development, which is scheduled to take three years to complete.

The King Faisal Medical City will cover a total area of 262,836 square metres and will contain a specialised hospital, eye hospital and cardiac and neuroscience hospitals. The Medical City will have a total clinical capacity of 1,350 beds when completed and the scheme will also contain 200 housing units and 200 apartments for medical staff.

The hospital contracts are two of a number of major medical facility construction projects currently out for tender in the kingdom.

The Health Ministry recently invited contractors to submit bids for the contract to build the estimated $1.2bn King Khaled Medical City project in Dammam.

The Health Ministry has invited prequalified contractors to submit bids by 18 June for the contract to build the medical city.

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.