Al Jaber Group secures $1.6bn Masdar City deal

Khaled Awad, Masdar director of property development.

The Abu Dhabi-based Al Jaber Group has been awarded a US $1.6 billion (AED5.9 billion) deal to develop infrastructure for the first phase of the Gulf’s flagship eco project Masdar City.

Al Jaber Energy Services, a subsidiary of the Al Jaber Group, will construct roads, basic services, install utilities, and build other infrastructure over the next three years.

Fatima Obaid Al Jaber, Al Jaber Group COO, speaking at the Arabian World Construction Summit that ended yesterday, said that mobilisation had already started and construction work would begin soon.

The US $22 billion Masdar City is billed as the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, located a short distance from Abu Dhabi City, on a 6.5km2 plot of land.

The infrastructure contract has been awarded to Al Jaber Group in line with Masdar’s long-term sustainability goals, which include contracting work as locally as possible.

Khaled Awad, Masdar director of property development told Construction Week: “Part of our mission is to bring local capacity up, not just to import technology.

“This is part of what Masdar City is about. We want to fly a flag, to show that local companies could still get big jobs in the renewable energy field.

“We at Masdar will help them and assist them, provided they have the right technical know-how and commercial competitiveness.”

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The construction process is being supported by a 10MW solar power plant within the city, which will begin feeding into the national grid next month.

According to Awad, all construction waste from the site is being recycled, and carbon emissions are being logged to allow for future offsetting programmes.

Twenty percent of funding for the city is being provided by the Government of Abu Dhabi.

Masdar plans to raise the majority of the remaining funds through the private sector, predominantly through the signing of leases by green businesses wishing to be based in a dedicated “eco-cluster.”