Five pre-qualify for Mafraq-Ghweifat highway

Abu Dhabi's Department of Transport (DoT) has shortlisted five consortia for the US$ 2.7 billion Mafraq-Ghweifat highway project, which will connect Abu Dhabi with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Scheduled to start during the fourth quarter of 2009, construction of the 327 km-long Mafraq-Ghweifat highway will take four years, according to Faisal Al Suwaidi, executive director of highways at the DoT

The five consortia are, ANITE (Autostrade Per l'Italia (lead), Al Naboodah Construction Group, Impregilo, Todini Costruzioni Generali, Emirates Utilities Company), the Buoygues-led consortium (Bouygues Travaux Publics, China Harbour Engineering Co, Consolidated Construction Company), the CCCC-MTD (China Communications Construction Company (lead) and Malaysia's MTD Capital), the IRTIBAAT consortium (Australia's Macquarie Capital Group (lead), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Al Jaber Transport & General Contracting, N.V. Besix, Mouchel Middle East, Transfield Services International) and the Mafraq Motorway Group (MMG) consortium (Strabag Societas Europaea (lead), Joannou & Paraskevaides (Over Seas), J&P Avax, Saif Bin Darvish and Egis Projects.

The DoT is expected to finalise requests for proposal documents, concession agreement and output specifications by the end of March this year, with the contract awarded during the second half of 2009.