A total of 29 contracting companies have been prequalified to bid for the $1-billion King Abdullah Medical City project in Bahrain, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The project, funded through a SR1 billion ($267 million) grant from the late King Abdulla bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, will be built on a one-million-sq-m plot donated by His Majesty King Hamad at Durrat Al Bahrain, one of the largest towns in southern Bahrain.

The medical city will be a multiple-phased mixed-use development comprising academic and medical facilities, a research centre, on-site accommodation and other communal facilities to create a self-sustained campus, reported the BNA.

Under the first phase, a 288-bed hospital supported by on-site staff housing and other communal facilities will be developed followed by the setting up of medical clinics, medical services building, specialised research centres in the prevailing diseases in the GCC region, including cancer, diabetes and obesity in the next phase, it stated.

The mammoth development, to be operated by Arabian Gulf University, will employ more than 700 medical staff, it added.

On completion, the project will boast a 500-bed hospital besides academic school, research facility, medical hotel, rehabilitation hospital, on-site accommodation for both students and staff, it stated.-TradeArabia News Service