BrazilAtkins selected for Oman Khazaen Economic City logistics hub project
The British multinational engineering and design consultancy Atkins has been selected as the lead planning and supervision provider on Oman’s Khazaen Economic City development.
A joint venture between the Oman Investment Corporation and Saudi Arabia-based construction firm Mohammed Ali Al Swailem Group (MASCO), the Khazaen Economic City is envisioned as an international logistics hub and eventually a fully integrated economic smart city, featuring a ‘dry’ port and commercial, residential and light industrial zones spread over 51 square kilometres of land in the Batinah region 60 clicks west of Muscat.
Following the contract announcement, worth $6.8 million over five years with a two-year mutual extension clause, the UK-based engineering, design and project management firm Atkins will now come board as lead development consultant to provide master planning, design, and supervision services – beating out rival short-listed bids from Parsons International, KEO International Consultants, and F&M Middle East.
Under the terms of the tender, the consulting firm will be tasked with the integrated urban planning for the city, including carrying out environmental and sustainability assessments, along with engineering design for infrastructure and utilities and the preparation and evaluation of future construction tenders, with the firm then supervising the Phase 1 infrastructure implementation. Altogether, the time-span for the completion of Phase 1 is set at twenty years, with further phases of the project expected to span many more decades to eventually become a fully integrated city.
“We are delighted to appoint Atkins as the lead consultant for Khazaen,” Kalat bin Ghuloom al Bulooshi, the CEO of Oman Investment Corporation said. “This is a demonstration of our approach of entering partnerships with global firms with a proven track record in delivering truly outstanding projects and also implementing true in-country value. The contract award comes after months of in-depth evaluation and discussions with each of the shortlisted firms.”
Al Bulooshi said previously that the first priorities for Atkins – along with establishing a fruit and vegetables market and a building to serve as Khazaen headquarters – would be to complete the engineering and design work for the project’s Phase 1 logistics & industrial area and the central ‘first-of-its-kind’ inland port – which will connect road and rail freight directly with maritime shipping through the Sohar Port, and operate under a customs ‘pre-clearance’ model for immediate loading.
At the time of the initial project launch earlier this year in March, Al Bulooshi said that it was hoped that the development would break ground in six-to-nine-months, with September the aim. Atkins’ managing director for Oman, Marco Malpiedi said in response; “It is a fantastic for us to be retained to assist Khazaen Economic City… This is an exciting time to be part of the realisation of such an important project in Oman’s economic expansion, and we are looking forward to bringing our projects expertise to this development.”
That expertise includes completion on numerous projects throughout the GCC and Greater Middle East over the past 50 years, with Atkins – which is the largest British engineering consultancy and one the biggest in the sector worldwide – serving the region through 12 local offices and a staff tally pushing 2,500 at the beginning of last year. Global revenues exceeded £2 billion in the year ending March 2017, up 11.8 percent.
