Saleh Abdullah Al Mahana, a Saudi-based contracting company, has been awarded a contract to build a long-stay care centre in the Muharraq area of Bahrain.

The project is part of an integrated medical complex comprising also a maternity hospital and a proposed centre for multiple sclerosis patients, in addition to the existing elderly care centre, reported the BNA.

The project, which is implemented, following directives from HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, aims to meet the citizens’ needs and improve medical services in the kingdom, remarked Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf after signing the deal.

The project is within the first phase of projects of the Gulf Development Programme, which is based on the agreement signed between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in March 2014, covering the centre’s construction costs, construction of a central services building and all other facilities, external works, consultancy services, furniture, medical equipment, electrical and mechanical tools, non-medical and information system related requirements.

Work on Phase One of the Saudi Development Fund-funded project will begin in the third quarter of this year, and is due to be completed by the end of 2020, said the BNA report.

Besides the long-stay care centre, the medical complex will also boast a central building for non-medical services serving the medical complex and a 50-bed maternity hospital, it added.