Corinthia wins EUR80m Sudan consultancy contract

Corinthia Group subsidiary, Quality Project Management Limited, has been awarded a Sudanese consultancy contract worth some EUR80 million, the Group announced yesterday.

The contract will see QPM providing project and cost management services and the whole range of design consultancy services for the construction of a five-star, 224-room hotel with an adjacent conference centre and a separate commercial centre, in Khartoum, Sudan.

QPM is to undertake the African project for a leading international investor and will ensure it meets with five-star deluxe standards and specifications. The full development permits have been obtained from the Sudanese authorities and site mobilisation is scheduled to start next month, with the whole project targeted for completion by end 2004.

The development is located on an extremely well positioned parcel of land measuring some 45,000 square metres at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, known as the Monqran. Khartoum’s main commercial thoroughfare, En Nil Avenue, where most of the ministerial palaces are located, passes right in front of the hotel.

QPM Chairman Gerald Borg, said of the development, "The entire area is undergoing gradual development, and this major project will be a landmark that will provide significant economic activity, as well as suitable accommodation and related facilities for the increasing number of visiting businessmen and tourists arriving in the country."

The architecture of the imposing forward-looking design of the hotel has taken into consideration the geography and culture of the area, presenting a glass and aluminium Arab dhow, or sail, that appears to be suspended over the tributaries of the Nile.