Sharjah reveals AED1bn mega projects

Dr Rashid Al Leem, HFZA director general.
[More Images]

RELATED ARTICLES: City Profile: Sharjah | Sharjah: where rubber meets the road | Heart of Sharjah gets go ahead | Manlift donates generator to Sharjah centre

Sharjah’s Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) yesterday announced that it has completed five mega projects totaling AED800m, has another AED200m worth of projects in progress, and will be ready to announce two more mega projects within the next month.

Dr Rashid Al Leem, director general of the HFZA told a gathering of key contractors, consultants and financiers that Sharjah’s government had been aggressive in its development plans over the past two years, and that the mega projects were vital in expanding Sharjah’s appeal to international business and trade.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Dr Rashid said that two more projects would be announced “in the next month”. He wouldn’t elaborate on the details, but said all initial feasibility, environmental, health and safety, and financial viability studies had been completed.

“I expect work to begin on them by the end of the year,” he told Construction Week.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Dr Rashid said the freshly completed projects, which include the expansion and development of the Hamriyah inner harbor, two housing new developments that will house a combined 9072 labourers, and two roading projects that have added a combined 50kms of new and resealed roads, had all been completed on time and on budget.

“This is an important moment in HFZA’s history. We were able to successfully complete five mega infrastructure projects including of the Inner Harbor development. Achieving this on time and on budget, without any disruption to our current operations is a milestone in its own right,” Dr Rashid said.

The AED355m inner harbor development is the biggest single project ever undertaken in the emirate. It was designed and overseen by Halcrow, and the work carried out by Six Construct. More than 5.3m cubic metres of sand and silt was dredged out of the harbour to create two extra basins with depths of between 5-9m, 10,012 quay wall blocks were used and 3.8kms of quay walls created to complete the development. With major dredging of the main harbour already completed, the Hamriyah port is now able to cater for any vessel with a draft of up to 16m.

“Sharjah has had a reputation as a logistics centre, as a hub for the oil and gas sector. We also have the only LPG terminal here too. The aim was to expand that and to help draw more business to Sharjah – and the new harbor development will do that,” Dr Rashid said.

Additional spending on 48 new warehouses had paid off too. Almost all were occupied, and Dr Rashid expected the rest to be filled by next month. He also said that work on the AED120m Free Zone interchange was on target for completion in July.

“Thanks to the leadership of our government, we’ve been able to make Sharjah a more inviting place for international companies to do business.”

“In 1998, there were 19 companies operating in Sharjah – now there are 4800. I think that says more about our sustainability, growth and development than anything else,” he said.