The Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre is one of Oman’s most anticipated projects.
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The tender for the construction of Package 2 at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre Precinct, which is being developed by Omran, has been awarded to Carillion Alawi LLC, as approved by the Government Tender Board.
Worth a total of $202.6 million, the package will include the construction of exhibition halls, car park facilities and the district cooling plant.
The scope of Package 2, for the construction of a project considered one of Oman’s most highly anticipated, includes a structured car parking facility that will hold 4,200 vehicles on three parking levels over an area of 143,000sqm.
Exhibition halls of approximately 45,000sqm gross area are also part of the package. These will also provide five divisible, state of the art walls, with service trenches, plant rooms and acoustically treated, vertically movable partitions to enable separation and sound isolation in each hall.
Furthermore, the package will comprise of a concourse with a glazed curtain wall system, fully equipped with a main production kitchen and three cafes, hospitality suites, administration/office areas, a central landscaped courtyard and two circulation nodes connecting the concourse to the car park.
Additionally, the scope will also cover the ancillary buildings, namely the Energy Center which serves as the District Cooling Plant for the entire precinct, security screening facility, taxi amenity building, waste management building, a landscape maintenance building and electrical substation facility.
The project also features a number of sustainable initiatives in conservation of energy, potable water and use of treated sewage effluent for cooling and irrigation and thus targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the United States Green Building Council.
Eng Wael Al Lawati, CEO of Omran stated that the award of this package represents a major milestone for the company as this is the second major construction package to be awarded by Omran after the award of the development of the Site Infrastructure and Utilities Package late last year.
He also expressed that this award certainly makes everyone anxious to see the first part of the iconic OCEC landmark Project materialize within 20 months from today and Omran is in the process, as part of the Project Execution Plan, to release a series of other construction packages by the end of the year that include the Convention Centre building with a capacity of a 3200-seat auditorium and banquet halls, a 5-star hotel, a 4-star hotel, and a number of class-A office buildings.
Eng Said Al Qasmi, OCEC chief project officer at Omran said, “Omran as a prudent developer, has invested a lot of efforts during the various design stages of the project to scrutinize all the design options presented to ensure maximum use of local materials utilizing the local supply chain and also allocated marks during the evaluation process of the submitted tenders to the ‘Local Content’ criteria.”
“We do not select Contractors only because of their proven track record and technical capabilities in the field of construction but most importantly, for their relevant and specific proposals to use an extensive list of qualified local subcontractors and suppliers as well as for offering formal recruitment and training programs to their Omani staff therefore providing valuable addition to Omran’s local capacity building strategy,” he added.
With anticipated opening in 2016, the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre operated by AEG Ogden, represents a key cornerstone of the ongoing efforts to position the Sultanate as part of the vast growing Events Industry which will greatly contribute toward the diversification of the national economy and the employment of Omani nationals during construction and the operation phases of the Project.