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Plan Al Ain 2030, launched in April, will guide the development of the City for the next two decades, during which time the Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi expects the population to double. As the first construction contracts are rolled out over the next six months, Al Ain Municipality urban planning director Talal Al Salamani tells us how it will be.
What is the scope of Plan Al Ain 2030?
We are liaising closely with the Urban Planning Council (UPC) of Abu Dhabi, and in consultation with the UPC, we are going to run a number of projects.
The first plan is concerned with the city of Al Ain itself. The second is concerned with the urban planning framework incorporating all of the settlements, towns and villages within the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (of which Al Ain City is the capital).
There will also be projects that revolve around the ongoing improvement of the downtown area. The projects will deliver the full circle of services including transit, urban regeneration, and improvement of existing infrastructure.
Will you talk us through the early stages of the construction timetable?
The new residential area will involve the private sector. The developer will build the community houses and the infrastructure for the overall area.
The first step is the design of the prototype villas which will be approved by the client, in this case Al Ain Municipality. We will then start the construction of the infrastructure, and following that, the contracts to build the villas will be awarded by the developer, which is Aldar Properties.
To run some of these stages in parallel then becomes a project management exercise. We will start doing basic, or in some cases major, frame infrastructure and at the same time we will begin some of the basic villa construction like foundations and so on.
By this stage the government will have allocated a budget to the developer for the construction of the villas.
So the villa construction is fully government funded?
Yes, the government will finance all of the construction work required to build the houses and the infrastructure. The villa prototypes will be delivered in a way that will suit the Emirati family size and the architectural style will be blended into the architecture of the city of Al Ain.
How will the funding be administered?
Instead of paying it straight to the developer it will be put in a fund and the developer will have access to that fund. There will be a system of supervising and releasing the payment according to the amount of work that is to be done.
Based on that approach the developers will get a contribution to the construction of the Emirati housing, which will be paid according to a fixed rate. This will be a measured works contract.
When will the first tenders be issued?
We hope that we can start things by the end of this year. We have appointed architects to design the villas and the consultants to work on the infrastructure. We actually started with one architect, but with the current downturn, more were invited to get different pricing. We assumed that the design drawings and the approval required may take six months or so, along with preparing tender documents. We hope that construction will start sometime this year or early 2010.
So what will be the next step?
The urban regeneration – the community facilities, the neighbourhood centres, the district centres, educational, healthcare, leisure, and commercial activities – will be based on an investment basis. The developer will benefit from getting the investment area designated for investment sites, which will then be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis.
Al Ain Municipality will give a lease, say for a certain number of years, with rates that will detail a certain percentage of the net profits, and at the same time it might elaborate on the detailing of any commercial activity.
This system is a prototype. We hope it will be a success. If it is, we might consider it as a possibility to be repeated in other areas across the city.
Construction costs are relatively low at present. How will you guard against cost escalation?
That’s covered. Take the infrastructure works for example. You would have cost, plus 5%. So we measure the cost with our project manager and then we pay him 5% extra as profit for overhead management.
Further, the government of Abu Dhabi now adopts the Fidic as a contract procedure for construction. This gives both parties, contractor and client, a fair deal. If you price the contract according to the cost of cement and steel today, then in six months, if it drops or climbs, we will revalue the contract, accounting for the new material costs, and the amount of work executed. We will evaluate the amount owed. This handles the issue of inflation.
How do you guard against disagreement over costs accumulated over time?
Construction materials will be priced on an index established by the Department of Planning and Economy. That is a current index of the market, which everyone is aware of and cannot be disputed. We will measure the contract accordingly. This approach is not only fair, but it will help the contractor to put in the right pricing. In the absence of such a thing the contractor may exaggerate and there might be some hidden risk somewhere, which would not be good for either party.
Analysis of Plan Al Ain 2030 offers insight into the distinct construction opportunities that will arise across the city as the plan is rolled out. Here is what the plan says.
Healthcare
Despite its well-regarded hospitals, Al Ain is currently in the low-to-medium segment of hospital beds per 1000 people. In order to prevent that ratio from slipping, Al Ain will aggressively need to build more hospital beds as the population grows.
Residential
Al Ain will see strong demand for residential units across all sectors of the market as the population grows. There is a projected over-supply of luxury units, and an undersupply of mid-to-affordable units.
Retail
Increasing population and tourism will lead to a growing demand for retail space. Al Ain’s ratio of retail m2 per resident is comparatively quite high and will remain so.
Education
A key priority of the Abu Dhabi government is to grow the universities in the emirate to retain Emirati students and attract GCC students. This strategy should keep Al Ain in the high segment for tertiary institutions.
