DUBAI - Bahrain's largest city resort, Durrat Al Bahrain, announced today the appointment of Great Lakes Nass, a joint venture company of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock and the Nass Group as the dredging contractor for the ambitious $1 billion project.
Great Lakes Nass has been awarded the $105 million contract to complete the land reclamation of over 6 million square meters of reclaimed sea expected to be completed in a period of 26 months.
Yousif Taqi, chairman of Durrat Al Bahrain and Abdulla Nass, chairman of the Nass Group, signed at the contract. Durrat Al Bahrain, which is equally owned by both the Kingdom of Bahrain's government and Kuwait Finance House (KFH), has marked another major milestone by appointing the largest dredging contractor in the US and one of the largest in the world. Great Lakes Nass will commence the physical creation of the project's six million square meters in November.
"Great Lakes Nass was appointed after undertaking an extensive short listing and tender process involving some of the world's leading dredging and reclamation construction companies. With the local and international knowledge they have demonstrated, we firmly believe that they will successfully complete the project within the agreed timeframe," said Jassim Al Jowder, deputy general manager at Durrat Al Bahrain.
Durrat Al Bahrain is the second project in Bahrain to be awarded to Great Lakes Nass after the success they have verified in reclaiming the Khalifa bin Salman Port and Industrial Area in Hidd.
The joint venture combines the dredging expertise of Great Lakes with the proven capability of the Nass Group in carrying out the rock protection works. The Nass group placed over 3.5 million tonnes of rock protection on the Hidd project.
Durrat Al Bahrain, a 20 square kilometres area of desert and sea, is one and half larger than down town Manama, Bahrain's capital. It is set to become the country's largest city resort.
The stunning design of the city resort has been provided by WS Atkins, the renowned engineering design and consultancy firm, and is the vision of Tom Wright, WS Atkins director of architecture.BY A STAFF REPORTER
© Khaleej Times 2004
