LUXURY AMIDST TURBULENCE 60
realty check
MULTI-MILLION contract awarded sheireb Properties has appointed Qatari Arabian Construction Co. WLL (QACC) as the main building contractor for QR330 million worth of restoration and construction work in the Heritage Quarter within Phase 1A of its Downtown
Doha project. The contract involves restoring four historical houses, known as the “Heritage Houses”, renovating the Eid prayer ground, and building the Juma’a Mosque dating back to the first decade of the last century. The restored Heritage Houses – Jalmood House, Company House, Mohamed Bin Jassim House and Al Radwani House – will be the centerpiece of the quarter, creating an important cultural destination within the Msheireb project. The four courtyard houses, including the family house of Mohammed Bin Jassim, the son of the founder of modern Qatar, will be converted into museums, cultural centres and exhibition buildings. In the process, they will bring back significant aspects of Qatar’s history and shared memories. The renovation and construction contract also includes landscaping and paving works throughout the Heritage Quarter, located in the northeast section of Msheireb Downtown Doha. Covering 110,000 square metres of gross floor area, Phase 1A also incorporates the Diwan Amiri Quarter, the Amiri Guard residences and the Qatar National Archive.
Qatar to spend QR435 billion on projects by 2020
3 0 Qatar Today
MARCH 2013
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he bidding process for the ambitious Qatar Rail project will begin soon. Excavation work on tunnels for the underground rail lines is expected to start by the end of 2013, a senior official of Qatar Rail said during Qatar Projects 2013. “Construction work for the Qatar Rail project will begin by the end of 2013, and during the peak construction period over 20,000 workers are expected to work daily until 2016,” Ahmed Nassar Al-Kowsi, Logistics Director of Qatar Rail, said on the sidelines of Qatar Projects 2013. According to Al Kowsi, over the period of the next 10 years Qatar is expected to announce about 500 projects related to infrastructure development, including railways, roads, electricity (construction and upgrade of power grids), stadiums, hotels and others.
In Numbers
m
Qatar Rail on track
qatar rail
8 billion
tonnes of steel will be needed to complete the project, enough to build about 200 Eiffel towers.
17 million
cubic metres of excavated material will be generated from the metro project.
atar’s ambitious megaprojects will surge ahead, with QR436.8 billion ($120 billion) worth of projects to be undertaken by 2020. Much of the government spending on megaprojects will be funded by revenues from oil and gas exports, which last year accounted for 70% of state revenues. “Our energy sector has played a central role in supporting the economy of Qatar. Last year, oil and gas exports accounted for 50% of GDP (gross domestic product) and 70% of government revenues. The government will continue to rely on these revenues in the future,” said Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, in a speech delivered on his behalf by Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, Managing Director of Rasgas and Vice-Chairman of Qatar Petroleum, at the MEED Qatar Projects 2013 conference last month. Much of the country’s spending is driven by its need to prepare for the 2022 FIFA football World Cup, which will require 12 stadiums, 90,000 hotel rooms and the infrastructure to accommodate more than 400,000 fans. The second day of the conference continued with quantitative and qualitative data on Qatar and the GCC projects market, featuring a comprehensive forecast and assessment of the projects market in the region by MEED Insights.