Garillon, Sheikha Athba bint Thamer, al-Ansari and other QDVC officials led the ceremonial cake-cutting at the seventh anniversary celebration on Wednesday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter


The Sheraton Park Project (SPP) is already 90% complete and set to be finished in December this year, Qatari Diar Vinci Construction (QDVC) CEO Yanick Garillon has announced.
QDVC’s other ongoing projects, such as the Doha Metro Red Line South, the New Orbital Highway and Light Rail Transit 2C2-2C3 in Lusail, are on track as well.
Garillon was speaking during the company’s seventh anniversary celebrations on Wednesday. Sheikha Athba bint Thamer al-Thani, chief support services officer of QDVC, and hundreds of representatives from various construction companies in Qatar were present.
QDVC, led by its chairman Nasser al-Ansari, also awarded a number of its employees for their dedication and hard work.
The CEO said the SPP features a landscaped park, underground four-level parking for 2,800 cars, a 66 KV/11KV substation and a tunnel below the Corniche road linking its car parks and the Doha Convention Centre.
The SPP will consist of seven hectares of public garden with landscaping and hardscaping elements, children’s playground areas, cafes, restaurants and water features. Another unique feature of the park is the electronic guiding system that will direct users to available parking spots.
Garillon also announced that four car parks will be delivered in September for public use. Citing the success of the QDVC in implementing these projects, the CEO stressed that their 3,000 employees, including 28 Qataris, who have been working efficiently are among the company’s main assets.
“We know what the value of our employees is, it’s our main asset,” he said. “They are motivated with the same passion with extensive experience and they are eager to share this experience with the new generation.
“At Lusail – we have been doing several underground stations and the four stations soon be completed. We have achieved a first step in Qatar by building a bridge over a highway in service without disturbing traffic.”
About the Doha Metro Red Line South that was awarded to the company in June 2013, excavation is under way in all possible areas and the first two tunnel-boring machines have arrived at the Doha port. The project, which will be finished in June 2018, has 500 employees on site so far.
The QR4bn New Orbital Highway project, QDVC’s latest contract, will see the construction of a 47km motorways network with a five-lane dual carriageway for light vehicles and two truck lanes in each direction, six viaducts, 17 bridges and underpasses and a 320m cut-and-cover tunnel, including eight grade-separate interchanges with cross roads, collectors-distributors, overpass and underpass structures, pedestrian and bicycles paths, landscape, hardscape and artscape. Works have already started and are set to be completed in 36 months.
For the LRT 2C2-2C3, Garillon said: “We are going to sign the contract of this project hopefully before the end of June 2014 and it will be completed by 2018.”
QDVC has also established a Training Academy that will provide enough skills and knowledge for its employees, especially Qataris who have just graduated from college.
“The way we attract Qataris is through our training programmes,” said al-Ansari, reiterating the importance of retaining talents for Qatar especially in the next 10 years. “We do not just build but also bring knowhow and transfer this knowhow to others.”
Asked for any updates on the Qatar-Bahrain causeway, he said: “No, I don’t have.”