China Gezhouba Group signed two contracts on Monday with Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW), the Kuwait Times reports.

The deals are worth a total of $557m, and cover the construction and maintenance of roads, electrical substations and water infrastructure in South Saad Al-Abdullah, a new city located about 25km southwest of the capital.

A third deal, worth $306, was signed with an unnamed local company.

PAHW signed the contract in the presence of Abdullatif Al-Meshari, Kuwait’s housing minister, and Zhang Jianwei, China’s ambassador to Kuwait.

The work will involve setting out 23,551 residential plots and laying the first and second asphalt layers for roads in the city’s residential suburbs. Other tasks include creating systems for drainage, sewerage, irrigation, water treatment, water supply, telephone networks, road lighting, traffic networks and electrical cabling.

Altogether, 52 irrigation tanks and 649 substations will be installed.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ambassador Zhang described the contracts as “a fruitful outcome of China–Kuwait cooperation” and said other Chinese companies were eager to win work in Kuwait’s housing sector.

The agreement follows a similar deal, signed last June with Sinohydro and China State Construction Engineering, to work on Foster + Partners’ South Sabah Al Ahmad City.

Minister Al-Mishari added that the contracts were “a major achievement and among PAHW’s largest”.

South Saad Al-Abdullah was masterplanned by Korean architect Heerim, and is an element of the Kuwait Vision 2035 development plan. It is intended to meet forecasted growth in demand for housing in the country, and includes the construction of some 20,000 homes over 64 sq km.