Abu Dhabi Ports Company has awarded about Dh11 billion ($3 billion) in contracts so far to build the first phase of its new port and industrial zone, its chief executive has said.

The first phase of Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone (KPIZ) in Abu Dhabi, expected to be two-thirds the size of Singapore, is estimated to cost around Dh26.5 billion, Tony Douglas was quoted as saying in a report in our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN).

'We're in the order of about Dh11 billion of it, that's already committed,' said the executive, who took the helm of Abu Dhabi Ports in June.

'I think we've done about Dh6 billion (in contracts) in the last three or four months. The contracts include the port island construction phase which is obviously from the ground up. So that's all the port buildings, all of the infrastructure that goes on top of the port and all of the systems.'

KPIZ will be built over five phases and the state-owned company is also developing smaller ports in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, the world's third-largest oil exporter, is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, real estate and tourism to diversify its economy away from oil.

The first phase of Khalifa Port is scheduled to open in 2012.