Dubai Sewerage Project – Extending prequalification period

In order to developing and operating various packages of the US$22bn Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels (DSST) project, a new deadline for firms to submit their statements of qualifications for the contracts has been set by Dubai Municipality.

T&TI’s sister publication, Meed, reports that, according to a source close to the project, the deadline has been extended by six weeks, to October 21.

Being procured on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, the investor prequalification process for the scheme follows Dubai Municipality prequalifying engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors that can partner with developers or investors to bid for the contracts.

Including six packages, the US$22bn DSST project under the current plan is due to be tendered as PPP packages with concession periods lasting between 25-35 years.

The s Jebel Ali tunnels (North) and terminal pump stations (TPS), which are the contents of first package J1, will exapand almost 42km, and the links will extend 10km, whereas the second package, J2, covers the southern section of the 16km Jebel Ali tunnels, which are slated to have a link stretching 46km.

Additionally, W for Warsan, the third package, comprises 16km of tunnels, TPS and 46km of links and J3, the fourth package, comprises 129km of links.

While the deep sewerage tunnels, links and TPS (TLT) components of the overall project, are the contents of J1, J2, W and J3, J1, J2 and W will be procured under a design-build-finance-operate-maintain model with a concession period of 25-35 years.

J3 will be procured under a design-build-finance model with a concession period of 25-35 years. Following completion Dubai Municipality will operate J3, unlike the first three packages, which are planned to be operated and maintained by the winning PPP contractors.

The project’s remaining two packages entail the expansion and upgrade of the Jebel Ali and Warsan sewage treatment plants.

The prequalified EPC companies for packages J1, J2 and W are:

• Acciona Construccion (Spain) – Dubai branch
• Besix Construct (Belgium)
• China Harbour Engineering (China)
• China Railway Group (China)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)
• Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Dogus Insaat VE Ticaret Anonim Sirketi (Turkiye) – Abu Dhabi
• FCC Construcccion (Spain)
• Archirodon Construction (Overseas) Company (Greece) / BESSAC (France)
• China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation – Dubai Branch / Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company (STEC) / China Railway 14th Bureau Group Corporation
• Gulermak Agir Sanayi Insaat (Turkiye) / DETech Contracting (local)
• National Marine Dredging Company (local) / Afcons Infrastructure (India) / ITD Cementation India
• The Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company, Egypt) / Darwish Engineering Emirates (local) / AqualiaMACE Contracting Operation & General Maintenance (local)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Porr (Austria)
• Power Construction Corporation of China (China) – Dubai branch
• Samsung C&T Corporation (South Korea) – Dubai Branch
• SK Ecoplant (South Korea)
• Strabag Dubai (Austria)
• The Petroleum Projects & Technical Consultation Company (Petrojet) – Egypt
• Webuild (Italy)

EPC companies that have been prequalified to bid for package J3 are:

• Acciona Construccion (Spain) – Dubai branch
• Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting (Kuwait)
• China Railway Group (China)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)
• Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• DETech Contracting
• Archirodon Construction (Overseas) Company (Greece) / BESSAC (France)
• China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (China) – Dubai branch / Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company (STEC) / China Railway 14th Bureau Group Corporation
• Gulermak Agir Sanayi Insaat (Turkiye) / DETech Contracting (local)
• International Foundation Group (IFG, local) / General Construction Company (local)
• Nael Construction & Contracting (UAE) / Concord for Engineering & Contracting (Egypt) – Dubai branch
• National Marine Dredging Company (local) / Afcons Infrastructure (India) / ITD Cementation India
• Mapa Insaat Ve Ticaret (Turkiye)
• Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons (Kuwait)
• Porr (Austria)
• Power Construction Corporation of China – Dubai branch
• Strabag (Austria)
• Tecton Engineering & Construction (local)
• The Petroleum Projects & Technical Consultation Company – Petrojet (Egypt)

As a source close to the project stated, packages J1 and W are going to be tendered together as separate contracts first, whereas by J2 and J3, with the requests for proposals (RFPs) to be issued sequentially, staggered around six to 12 months apart.

Also the packages for the expansion and upgrade of the Jebel Ali and Warsan STPs will be procured in a process separate from the four DSST-DLT components.

Decommissioning the existing pump stations, this project will convert Dubai’s existing sewerage system from a pumped system to a gravity system.