Contractors

News in brief

Officials break ground on the campuses.

Airolink breaks ground on twin campuses

Airolink has started work on Bloom Education’s twin school projects which will come up on a 10-acre site in Dubai, UAE.

The branch campuses of Brighton College UK and Dwight School New York, located within a ‘super campus’, are being set up at a total cost of Dh275 million ($75 million). On completion in September 2018, the campuses will boast a combined enrolment capacity of up to 4,000 students.

The 89,000-sq-m ‘super campus’ will be of three-storey height and will offer ample car parking, landscaping and greenery. The schools will also offer extensive sports facilities and a full soccer pitch with a 400-m running track.

 

 

Sterling and Wilson in major solar win

India’s Sterling and Wilson has won both the turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operation and maintenance contract for the world’s largest single location solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at Sweihan in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The plant is being jointly developed by Japan’s Marubeni along with Jinko, a global leader in the solar industry, and Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea).

The project will deliver a capacity of 1,177 MWp, easily surpassing the current largest 850 MWp single location plant in China. With construction already under way, the plant, which is spread over a desert area of 7.8 sq km, is scheduled to be fully integrated with the grid in a record timeline of just 23 months.

 

 

DSI restructures, eyes new contracts

Dubai-based contractor Drake & Scull International is close to signing three new projects including a wastewater treatment plant, said a Reuters report citing the company’s chief executive.

The other two are in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sector in the UAE, Wael Allan said, adding that “they were in final stages of negotiations”.

DSI has been hit hard by the low oil prices and an economic slowdown in the sector.

The company is proceeding with a turnaround and capital restructuring plan which includes a number of cost-cutting measures and capital raising initiatives and last month revealed that Tabarak Investment has acquired the majority shares from the contractor’s former chief executive Khaldoun Tabari.

Phase One of the capital restructuring programme (capital reduction) is expected to be completed within six to seven weeks, while Phase Two (capital increase) includes a Dh500 million ($136 million) capital increase.

DSI expects to complete the programme by the end of the third quarter.