The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) has started construction on its luxury Saudi tourist destination, The Red Sea Project.
Construction at the Base Camp, located on the coastal area near the southern end of The Red Sea Project, is now underway.
John Pagano, CEO of TRSDC, commented: “This is an important milestone for The Red Sea Project and takes us another step closer to our goal of creating a truly exquisite tourism destination on the beautiful Red Sea coast.
“The remote nature of the site, which is an important part of its appeal as a destination, creates logistical challenges for the support of large-scale development. The Base Camp is an essential first step in preparing the destination for construction.”
Works on the ambitious project’s infrastructure will continue through 2019. They include temporary roads, jetties, utilities, and a bridge to connect a hub island to the shore.
Also being erected is a Management Village to support the development, and a Construction Village to house a workforce of up to 10,000 people.
The Base Camp currently houses 60 people who will live and work on the site.
Pagano continued: “We will be sourcing labor locally and internationally using both our own resources and those of our construction and development partners. Our objective is to set a new standard of excellence for labor management in the region.”
Hyper-luxury hotels and leisure and lifestyle amenities
The first phase of Red Sea is scheduled for completion in 2022. It includes 14 luxury and hyper-luxury hotels providing 3,000 rooms across five islands and two inland resorts. It will also feature yacht marinas, leisure and lifestyle amenities as well as an airport.
“As with every aspect of the project, we are working hard to ensure that our operations have minimal impact on the surrounding ecosystems while providing a safe and comfortable environment for our people to work in,” added Pagano.
“As work progresses on the destination, we will be carefully monitoring our environmental impact to ensure that we achieve our objective of setting a new global standard in sustainable development.”
Last month, the Board of Directors of TRSDC approved the master plan for the Saudi project.
Devised with ecological factors in mind, the final master plan preserves around 75% of the destination’s islands for conservation. It also designates nine islands as sites of significant ecological value. Technology will help the sustainability initiatives – with monitors and sensors tracking variations in the environment.
The Red Sea destination is set to be fully complete in 2030 – and will create up to 70,000 jobs.
Giga-projects
The Red Sea Projects is one of four “giga projects” currently under construction in Saudi. The others are Qiddiya, Al-Ula, Neom . In September the Public Investment Fund announced a new uber-luxury resort called Amaala.