Six of the best: projects to keep an eye on

Haramain High Speed Railway Project.
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5 Saadiyat Island
Developer: Tourism Development & Investment Company
Description: Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) is overseeing the transformation of Saadiyat, an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi, into an international cultural destination. The development is made up of seven components and includes Guggenheim and Louvre museums, a golf course, a marina and residential areas.

In January this year, master-developer TDIC sought expressions of interest for a number of different jobs on Saadiyat Island. These included enabling works in the marina, a piling job for the Guggenheim Museum and a luxury villa construction contract at the golf course.

Approved bidder lists for these jobs will be drawn up and bids invited in the next few months. One more job that will definitely be coming up later this year is the main construction contract for the Frank Gehry-designed golf clubhouse. The 18,000 m² property will be design-led, include hotel rooms and restaurants, and has been designed to meet Abu Dhabi’s ‘Estidama’ sustainability guidelines.

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6 Pan-UAE Railway
Developer: Etihad (Union) Railway
Description: The timeframe for this one is still be firmed up, but there is no doubt that the will to build a pan-UAE railway is there. Etihad Union Railway was created last year with a brief to build a national railway with around 1100 km of track with an estimated development budget of AED 25-30 billion.

It will connect the principal centres of population and industry in the country and will link into the planned GCC railway network. The railway will run at speeds of between 80 and 120 kilometers per hour for freight transport, and between 160 and 200 kilometers per hour for passenger transport.

The railway will connect Ghuwaifat on the KSA border with towns in the East on the borders of Oman. Inland areas such as Madinat Zayed and Liwa will be connected on the basis of economic need. The company is talking to Adnoc about carrying granulated sulphur from the Shah and Habshan oil and gas fields to the Ruwais petrochemicals complex.

A combination of government funds, bank loans and bonds will pay for the construction of the railway. In public statements, the end of 2010 has been given as the date for the first tenders to be floated.