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Belgian company wins $220m Palm Jebel Ali dredging contract

By Valentina Pasquali
Palm Jebel Ali Nakheel
Senior management from Dubai Holding Real Estate and Jan De Nul at the ceremony for the Palm Jebel Ali marine works
  • Jan De Nul Group returns
  • First eight fronds ready by March
  • First villas by 2026

The AED 810 million ($220 million) contract to complete dredging, land reclamation, beach profiling and other work at Palm Jebel Ali has been awarded to a subsidiary of the Belgian-owned Jan De Nul Group.

In May the Dubai state-owned developer Nakheel announced that local contractor DBB Contracting and Khansaheb Civil Engineering, a subsidiary of Khansaheb Group, had started building an access and a service road to the development, among other infrastructure.  

The palm’s first eight fronds are slated to be site-ready by March 2025, with civil and residential construction to follow, the developer said in a press release on Monday. 

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“As Nakheel intensifies its development activity under Dubai Holding, the expertise of Jan De Nul Dredging in marine, civil construction and environmental projects is pivotal,” Khalid Al Malik, chief executive of Dubai Holding Real Estate, said in a statement. 

Dubai Holding absorbed the state-backed developers Nakheel and Meydan in March. 

Palm Jebel Ali, on the south side of Dubai, was initially launched in 2002. 

However development was stopped in its tracks by the global financial crisis and only resumed in recent months.

This has been prompted at least in part by a dearth of waterfront properties, rising interest for high-end residences with direct access to water features, and the announcement in the spring that the nearby Al Maktoum airport would become the largest in the world.

High demand for beachfront plots has also spurred new construction in recent months on the similarly stagnant, and also man-made, World Islands project to the north. 

Bridge, Landmark, Palm Islands - United Arab EmiratesNakheel
The full Palm Jebel Ali development is expected to cover 91 km of beachfront on completion

Jan De Nul Group dredged the original Palm Jebel Ali design more than 20 years ago. The new contract has gone to its subsidiary Jan De Nul Dredging Ltd. Group turnover in 2023 was €2.9 billion.

The first villas on Palm Jebel Ali were launched in September 2023 and are planned for delivery in late 2026.

The full development is expected to cover 13.4 km, with 16 fronds and 91 km of beachfront at completion, according to Nakheel.

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