Bahrain-based Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has invited bids from leading companies for the construction of a multi-million-dollar medical city in the kingdom.

The giant medical city project is being funded through a SR1 billion ($267 million) grant from the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and will be built on a one-million-sq-m plot donated by His Majesty King Hamad near Khalifa City at Durrat Al Bahrain.

The medical city will be a multiple-phased mixed-use development comprising a new academic and medical facilities, research centre on-site accommodation and other communal facilities to create a self-sustained campus, stated Tahpi, an international specialist in health facility planning and architecture.

In the first phase, the project will see the development of a 264-bed hospital supported by on-site staff housing and other communal facilities in addition to 15 operating rooms and quality support medical services such as advanced laboratories and a pharmacy, it stated.

AGU’s President Dr. Khaled bin Abdulrahman Al Ohaly, said the selection process for the construction companies would be carried out according to several criteria, most notably their previous experiences with regard to the number of projects completed by these companies during the last five years as well as the size of these projects, and whether they included any health project.

"The first and second stages of the project are expected to complete after two years from the beginning of works," remarked Dr Al Ohaly.  

As per the project plan, the first stage of the construction of the medical city includes the hospital, the administration building, the staff accommodation, and the parking.

The second phase includes medical school, research centres, physiotherapy centre, mosque, conference centre, shopping centre and other buildings serving the medical city, he added.

It is the new flagship tertiary hospital in the GCC region with excellence in both academic and medical research sciences, according to Tahpi.

Once completed, the medical city complex will boast over 500 beds equipped with hitech facilities besides an academic school, research facility, medical hotel, rehabilitation hospital, on-site accommodation for both students and staff, said the top architect.

Since the project has a major Saudi funding, the tenders will be open to both Saudi and Bahraini contractors, it added.-TradeArabia News Service