Dubai developer Nakheel has awarded a AED105m ($28.6m) contract to carry out beach profiling work on Palm Jumeirah island.
The contract has been awarded to Dutch company Van Oord International and work will start in the third week of September and be completed in seven months time, Nakheel said in a statement published by state news agency WAM.
According to the indebted state-owned developer, Van Oord International will be “using prime quality sand on the eastern and the western edges of the Palm Jumeirah’s trunk… as well as handle the re-profiling of the water edge along (some of) the Palm Jumeirah island’s fronds.”
Back in 2009, Nakheel strenuously denied reports in the international media that its landmark Palm Jumeirah island was sinking into the Arabian Gulf.
European ground survey firm Fugro NPA Ltd had said that the island was sinking by an average of 5 millimetres a year, a claim rejected by Nakheel as “wholly inaccurate”.
Last month, Nakheel said it had sold a plot of land on Palm Jumeirah for AED400m ($109m).
The 305,704 sq ft plot was bought by a local investor the company didn’t identify.
Nakheel said the sale showed there were “clear signs of renewed investor confidence in Dubai real estate and in particular for unique products such as those offered on Palm Jumeirah”.
In July, Nakheel said its first-half profits jumped 36 percent on Monday, buoyed by property handovers on several projects.
Nakheel, whose extravagant developments at the height of Dubai’s property boom contributed to the emirate’s debt woes, has been slowly recovering from the crippling real estate collapse.
The developer said net profit was AED767m ($208.82m) in the first six months of the year, up from AED562m in the year-ago period.
Follow us on
