State-owned Arab Contractors has been appointed to carry out works on the new main parliament building in Egypt’s proposed Capital City.

Sources close to masterplanned project say Arab Contractors will start work soon on the new parliament building, which is set to be developed within the planned ministerial district of the new capital city.

Arab Contractors is currently working on approximately $150m-worth of infrastructure work in the Capital City, which the company says will be completed by mid-2018.

The contractor is also expected to complete a wide range of other infrastructure schemes in the area.

Earlier this month MEED reported that Egyptian contractor Hassan Allam Construction was awarded a design and build contract for work on another government building in Egypt’s new Capital City project.

The project will cost $70m and will also be built within the planned ministerial complex at the proposed new Capital City.

Hassan Allam was appointed earlier this year as the main contractor for work on six buildings in the proposed ministerial district.

“We are set to start work very soon on six government buildings in the new Capital City,” the company’s CEO Hassan Allam told MEED on 21 February.

The company was recently appointed following the official withdrawal of China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), which was set to build and finance the ministerial district of the Capital City.

The withdrawal of the Chinese means local contractors are in a prime position to complete the majority of the works for the new capital city.

Most construction contracts for the first phase of Egypt’s proposed New Capital City project will be delivered using design and build contracts, the chairman of the project’s master developer told MEED earlier this month.

Ayman Ismail, the chairman of the state-controlled Administrative Capital City of Urban Development (ACCUD), told MEED on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo that “projects being directly developed by ACCUD will be contracted under the design and build model.”

“The design and build model is a favourable one for government buildings as it speeds the delivery time whilst the government maintains ownership of an asset,” said Ismail, who also added that projects in the proposed ministerial complex have also been awarded under the same model.