Ithmar Development Co., the company sponsoring the Bahrain Affordable Housing PPP project, has selected Hill International to provide project management services.

The three-year contract has an estimated value to Hill of approximately US$4.3 million.

The project entails 2,800 social and affordable housing units in Al Madina Al Shamaliya and Al Luwzi. It is the largest housing project ever to be developed in Bahrain in partnership with the private sector and is expected to set a new benchmark for housing projects across the Middle East region.

The total project investment is estimated at US$450 million.

Mohammed Al Rais, Senior Vice President and Managing Director (Middle East) for Hill's Project Management Group, stated:

"This type of PPP initiative is a first for the Kingdom of Bahrain and for the GCC region. We are very excited to be part of this groundbreaking effort"

Following the signing of the project agreements with the Ministry of Housing in January 2012, Naseej incorporated a wholly-owned project company, Sharaka for Housing Projects Company, to execute the project and assembled a team of large contractors, namely, Cebarco Bahrain, Chase Manara and Terna to undertake works on different sites of the project.

The consortium of international and local consultants include Ithmaar Development Company as the development manager, Hill International as the project management consultant, AECOM as the master planners, Housing Units Design Consultants & Landscape as the design consultants, and Ansari Engineering Services as the housing units.

In late May 2014 we reported that Naseej announced the successful reservation of its housing PPP project. Before, In October 2013, Naseej announced that it had got US$450 million financing for the project from with Ithmaar Bank.