Rebuilding Baghdad

Construction workers continue work on the new United States Embassy compound.

Baghdad is a city with a lot of baggage – but through construction, it may have a much brighter future.

It’s hardly a secret that Baghdad hasn’t been a hotbed of construction in recent years, and with good reason. However, while the situation in the Iraqi capital remains ever tenuous, recent months have seen the government take serious steps to bring one of the oldest and largest cities in the region back onto the map.

Currently, Baghdad’s main project is one that will probably seem familiar to anyone in Dubai or Riyadh. October saw eight firms shortlisted for the Baghdad Metro, a city transportation projects estimated to be worth US $3 billion to $4 billion.

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Twenty firms originally bid for the project, which include two lines with a total length of 39km and 41 stations.

The companies now on the shortlist include France’s Systra, Britain’s Pell Frischmann and Cyril Sweett Group, US firms Parsons Brinckerhoff and Aecom, Germany’s RMS, Turkey’s Makyol and Mebex, a Lebanese firm.

Tourism also seems to be part of the grand plan for the future as well. Currently under construction is the Rotana Baghdad, designed by Dubai-based Dewan Architects and Engineers.

The 10-storey hotel is being touted as the country’s first truly five-star hotel. “While other ‘five-star’ hotels exist [in Iraq], nothing has really been built in the country since 1971,” explains Ammar Al Assam, Dewan executive director.

Currently under construction, Rotana Baghdad is located in the centre of the city—formerly known as Baghdad’s ‘green zone’—and once complete, is poised to be the unofficial destination-of-choice for affluent visitors, dignitaries and heads of state.

“Iraq has a huge potential for religious tourism,” says Al Assam. “The country is 80% Shi’ah and there are around 250 million Shi’ahs outside Iraq.”

Unsurprisingly, there are also a large number of reconstruction contracts on the table for the Iraqi capital, as the city begins to look at increasing housing and hospitals, and improving transport.

Baghdad’s Bab Al Shaikh district is to be fitted out with housing and buildings to host public service provders, along with multi-storey car parks and links to the neighbouring express highway.

Meanwhile, in the Kudher Elias district of the Al Karkh area of Baghdad, a major development project is in the pipeline. Planned for the area are a 15-storey, five-star hotel, a cinema, canals, a fountain and park areas.

Clinic projects in Baghdad are also proving fertile ground. In June, the UK’s MJ Medical (MJM) was named as the lead design consultant on a $400 million deal to build three new teaching hospitals in Iraq.

Alongside unidentified Lebanese partners, MJM will design, build and equip three 400-bed clinics in Baghdad, Diyala and Diwaniya. The three facilities are scheduled to open in June 2011.

“Contributing to a project that will offer the Iraqi people hope for their future as well as a tangible improvement in their day-to-day lives is a responsibility that we take extremely seriously,” says MJM strategic director Nathaniel Hobbs.

“The project underlines both the strength of the relationships we have with our clients in the Middle East, and the capabilities of our company.

“It takes a combination of local knowledge and operational excellence to succeed in the region, which is something we have been doing successfully for more than 20 years,” Hobbs adds.