Tenders to construct the King Abdullah Medical City in Bahrain are expected to be issued this month (December).

It comes as designs were finalised for the project, paid for through a SR1 billion ($378 million) grant from the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The project, scheduled for completion by the end of 2019, will be built on a 1-million-sq-m plot of land, near Durrat Al Bahrain. It will be run by the Arabian Gulf University (AGU), which has been granted approval to tender the project by the Saudi Fund for Development, which will shoulder all costs.

The new city will have 288 beds, a building for medical clinics and support services. It will also have research centres for cancer, obesity and diabetes and will look at introducing specialisations in medical bio-technology innovation management, ICT and artificial intelligence.