RIYADH: The successful execution of construction work at Princess Noura University, the project King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, launched a few years ago as the largest educational facility for women, is another milestone achieved by Saudi Oger. Sheikh Ayman Al-Hariri, Deputy Director General of Saudi Oger, said the company has worked with about 580 local companies to provide all materials used in the project, an effort aimed at strengthening national firms. The company also helped local importers acquire material that was not available domestically by providing information about it and its sources. The efforts were part of Saudi Oger's policy of working to improve local importers' performance and professionalism, which benefits the national economy in general, Al-Hariri said. The project includes a library with a capacity of about 5 million books and an automated storage and retrieval system, he added. Princess Noura University's medical center, which includes a 300-bed hospital and the latest equipment, will be a source of research, Al-Hariri said. Saudi Oger's efforts involved about 30,000 people who worked in construction and contracting, he said. The company is constructing academic and administrative buildings, the medical facility and medical research buildings, which have a total area of about a million square meters, he said. The international effort has involved Saudi Oger's designers and engineers in its offices around the world, he added. The company has set domestic factories to produce colored concrete to reduce construction time and used about 112 tons of steel provided by SABIC, he said. – Okaz/Saudi Gazette Notable features of Princess Noura University King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Sunday opened the new university city of Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman, the first exclusive university campus for women. The university is designed for an intake of over 50,000 women students and the campus, for which the foundation stone was laid on the outskirts of Riyadh in 2009. It boasts residences for 12,000 women students, 22 academic colleges and six medical colleges, and a 700-bed university hospital, along with two sports clubs, a conference center, commercial centers, and primary, intermediate and secondary schools for boys and girls. Salient features of the campus design are its 19-km train to transport students between faculties and other buildings, an “intelligent library” fully-accessible to students electronically, and rain channels and tunnels guarding against the threat of flooding.
