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 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.

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 hi-tech 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 received major Saudi funding, the tenders will be open to both Saudi and Bahraini contractors, it added.