Abu Dhabi plans 26 new infrastructure projects in 2010

Abu Dhabi Municipality has said 26 new infrastructure projects will be developed this year in Abu Dhabi City and its suburbs.

At the first municipal forum organised by the Municipal Affairs Department at Yas Island on Monday, Salma Al Junaibi, Director of Contracts and Tenders Department at the Municipality, said: “Sixteen of the new projects will be related to roads and infrastructure and 10 to urban planning.”

Mohammed Sharif, Under-Secretary at the Municipal Affairs Department, delivered a speech on behalf of Rashid Mubarak Al Hajeri, department’s Chairman.

He said new laws and regulations will soon be introduced for municipal work on big projects that will be executed by Abu Dhabi.

The most prominent road and infrastructure projects are the construction of infrastructure for the commercial area at Khalifa City, completion of the second phase of roads at Mohammed bin Zayed City and completion of projects at Al Salam, East Coast and Presidential Palace roads, Al Junaibi said.

The urban planning projects include development of health, security and environmental procedures in the emirate according to the standard criteria.

Last year, Abu Dhabi Municipality finished 570 contracts, task orders and purchase orders in the city worth a total of Dh9 billion, she said. The total contracts and tenders completed last year were 208 at a total value of Dh2.5bn.

In addition, there were 162 task orders valued at more than Dh3bn and 200 purchase orders worth Dh3.2bn.

She said infrastructure contracts completed last year accounted for more than 67 per cent of all contracts, while services and information technology formed 27 per cent and six per cent of the total respectively. The municipality has modernised procedures and services at the contracts and tenders department for 2010 and applied an electronic tenders system. In addition, it has introduced a unified and improved method for the evaluation of importers.

He said the privatisation policy followed by the emirate’s municipalities had been successful.

“The three municipalities were radically re-structured and huge chunks of the municipal services and utilities were privatised. That had a direct positive effect on the business and economy in the emirate.” Sharif said.

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