Infrastructure consultancy AECOM announced on Tuesday that construction has started on the first phase of Saudi Arabia's schools Public Private Partnerships (PPP) programme.

Wave 1 of the Schools Infrastructure Development PPP involves the design and construction of 27 new schools in Jeddah and 33 schools in Makkah that would house a total of 50,000 pupils, the consultancy said in a press statement.

AECOM is Technical Advisor Lead for Tatweer Buildings Company (TBC), a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, who are tasked with facilitating the funding, construction, supervision, management, operations and maintenance of new schools in the Kingdom on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

The statement said the PPP's 'Build Maintain Transfer' model would be applied across all three Waves with the first of the schools opening in Jeddah in August 2022.

"With a planned roll-out of up to 4,000 schools we are thrilled to be at the forefront of KSA's first schools' PPP" said Ian Laski, Chief Executive and President of AECOM Arabia.

"As long-term partner's for TBC we are honoured to be able to continue our work in this Vision 2030 project and we're now looking forward to starting the process again for Wave 2 and Wave 3," he added.

The statement said Wave 2 procurement is now underway and will see the holy city of Al Madinah receiving 60 brand new schools, housing a further 50,000 pupils, transforming its educational infrastructure by 2024.

(Writing by Syed Ameen Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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