Atkins, a major design, engineering and project management consultancy and a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, has won a contract to deliver masterplanning, design and supervision work for Khazaen Economic City (KEC), the first integrated economic city in northern Oman.

KEC is a joint venture between Oman Investment Corporation (OIC) and the Saudi-based Mohammed Ali Al Swailem Group (Masco).

OIC has the majority stake in the Omani-Saudi JV which was set up in March this year to develop the new economic city in northern South al-Batinah governorate.

As per the RO2.6 million ($6.7 million) deal, Atkins will deliver full consultancy services for the integrated urban planning of the 51.5-million-sq-m city besides providing a detailed masterplan, said the company which was last year acquired by Canadian infrastructure major SNC-Lavalin.

The scope of work also includes environmental and sustainability assessment, work on engineering designs for infrastructures and utilities, preparation and evaluation of construction tenders for various infrastructure work of the city besides supervising the implementation of the first phase of the infrastructure of Khazaen, it added.

Khazaen is the first and only integrated economic city within 60 km of Oman’s capital, and the second integrated economic city in the sultanate after the Special Economic Zone in Duqm.

On completion, KEC will offer attractive investment opportunities to develop and set up warehousing, logistics, light and medium industries, large showrooms and markets, hotel, residential and commercial projects, thus giving a significant boost to economic development and job creation in Oman.

KEC chairman Kalat Al Bulooshi said: "We are delighted to appoint Atkins as the lead consultant for Khazaen. This is a demonstration of our approach of entering partnerships with global firms with a proven track record in delivering truly outstanding projects."

Marco Malpiedi, the managing director at Atkins for Oman, said: "This is an exciting time to be part of such an important project in the country’s economic expansion, and we are looking forward to bringing our projects expertise to this development."

Atkins delivers masterplans and site designs for a range of major city based and industrial/logistics facilities across the region, including recently the detailed masterplan for Duqm City for Special Economic Zone Authority for Duqm (Sezad) in Oman.

The company has also been appointed by the Omani government as lead consultant for the Oman National Spatial Strategy (ONSS), where key projects such as KEC and Duqm City are entrusted to have the strongest integrated approach to masterplan of the sultanate.-TradeArabia News Service