Al Ain Municipality awards three major contracts to ETA Ascon Holdings

The contracts deal with the general cleaning and disposal of solid waste within Al Ain city and suburbs.

Giving details of the three contracts awarded to MBM - Dallah - Urbaser, Awadh bin Hasoum Al Darmaki, General Manager of Al Ain Municipality, said: "Today we have signed three major contracts for waste disposal and general cleaning in Al Ain municipality. We have now given away four contracts out of the total five contracts of this nature. We had already signed Contract No. 1 on May 14, 2007, and are working on Contract No. 3, which will be awarded in February 2008. Once all these five contracts are awarded, the whole project of gathering, transferring and recycling solid waste in the emirate would be implemented using advanced techniques, in line with the best international standards."

Contract No. 2, signed with MBM, in cooperation with Dallah of Saudi Arabia and Urbaser from Spain, is worth Dhs464m for a period of seven years and covers the Southern area of Al Ain city and suburbs, a total area of 7,900 square kilometer. This area has a population of 220,000 and has been producing about 400 tonnes of waste daily last year.

Contract No. 4 signed with MBM - Dallah - Urbaser, is valued at Dhs138m and has a validity of 10 years. The contract deals with the operation and maintenance of a medical and dangerous wastes crematory, which was built in the best international standards, in cooperation with Environmental Agency - Abu Dhabi. The total capacity of the crematory is 8 tonnes of medical wastes daily. The contract also involves setting up of a new crematory under BOT system to treat animal wastes.

Contract No. 5 signed with MBM - Dallah - Urbaser, is worth Dhs302m, and has a validity of 20 years. The contract deals with the operation and maintenance of the central dumping yard and the dangerous wastes cell, and setting up of a crushing plant, under BOT system, to deal with construction waste.

Rashed Ali Al Nouemi, General Manager at Al Ain Municipality, said, "We have not compromised on quality anywhere in offering these services to our society. The local companies have been instructed to cooperate with their international counterparts to ensure quality of their services and to improve the general standards of the private sector in UAE, so that they can be qualified to take up such projects in other emirates."

Mubarak Al Shamsi, Manager of General Health Administration at the Municipality, added, "Al Ain Municipality has always demanded the best technologies and standards available internationally in terms of offering these kind of services to the society in the oasis city."

Expressing happiness over winning the three major contracts, Khalid Abdullah Ahmed al Ghurair, Director of ETA Ascon Holdings, said, "I am very happy that MBM has secured three major government contracts. I would like to express my gratitude to Al Ain Municipality for awarding these important contracts to us. We consider this as a reward for the quality and high standards that the ETA Ascon Holdings companies have always striven to maintain."

Arif B. Rahman, Group Director, ETA Ascon Holdings, said, "The three contracts are very important for ETA Ascon Holdings and the projects demand very high standards of execution. I am sure, MBM, along with Dallas and Urbaser, will definitely meet the expectations of the Al Ain Municipality authorities. We are thankful to them for awarding these contracts to us."

Sadaq Jalal, Executive Director, ETA MBM, said, "Waste disposal and management are very important aspects of maintaining health and hygiene within the society. The three contracts are of great significance, and we are thankful to the Al Ain Municipality officials for having awarded them to an ETA Ascon Holdings company. These contracts will definitely help us improve our standards and even strive for better quality in everything that we do."