By rosebell
The request of proposals for the first two contracts of the $22bn Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels (DSST) project, has been issued by Dubai Municipality and the number of companies which have prequalified as lead members of potential consortiums that can bid for the contracts is at least four.
In accordance with previous report of T&TI’s sister publication, MEED about the firms that have been prequalified as lead members for the project’s four main tunnels and links packages, this list includes Ajman-based Etihad Water & Electricity, a team comprising Japan’s Itochu and Australian investment firm Plenary, and Saudi Arabia’s Vision Invest, whereas Belgium’s Besix is also understood to be among those prequalified to bid as a developer lead member.
The members of Plenary-Itochu consortium is likely going to include South Korea’s Samsung C&T and Italy’s Webuild, as industry sources stated.
The final talks with either the Vision Invest or Etihad Water & Electricity consortiums is undergoing by the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) team of Abu Dhabi’s National Marine Dredging Company and India’s Afcons Infrastructure, and separately PowerChina, although it had also been suggested that Vision Invest and Etihad Water & Electricity could bid as one team.
The same source said that Japan’s Marubeni and Saudi Arabia’s AlJomaih Water & Energy might also still be considering bidding for the contracts.
The scheduled date for bids is September 30 for packages J1 and W, while Packages J2 and J3 will be tendered at a later date.
With almost 42km length Jebel Ali tunnels (North) and terminal pump stations (TPS) are the contents of J1, whereas the links will extend 10km.
Also package W for Warsan, comprises 16km of tunnels, TPS and 46km of links.
Around AED30bn (US$8bn) is the determined budget for the overall project, while the whole-life cost over the full concession terms of the entire project is estimated at AED80bn.
With $22bn value, DSST project under the current plan is broken down into six packages, which are due to be tendered as public-private partnership (PPP) packages with concession periods lasting between 25-35 years.
Stretching 16km, J2 covers the southern section of the Jebel Ali tunnels and have a link extending 46km. J1, J2, W and J3 will comprise the deep sewerage tunnels, links and TPS (TLT) components of the overall project.
While the design, build, finance, operate and maintain model of J1, J2 and W will be same and under a concession period of 25-35 years, J3 will be procured under a design, build and finance model with a concession period of 25-35 yearsa nd following its completion, Dubai Municipality will operate J3.
The project’s remaining two packages entail expanding and upgrading the Jebel Ali and Warsan sewage treatment plants. MEED understands that these packages will be procured at a later stage.
This news was first published by T&TI’s sister publication Meed.
