27 July 2015
Muscat: A contract for building a pumping station and a water pipeline to connect the newly planned Quriyyat water desalination plant with Wadi Dhaqah might have been awarded to Target LLC.

Potable water supply

This is part of a scheme to supply potable water from the OMR100 million-Quriyyat desalination plant -- an independent water project to be built by a consortium led by Singapore's Hyflux -- to the main grid.

Although Target LLC is yet to receive an official confirmation from the Tender Board, the company's bid amount of OMR22.6 million matches with the price at which the authorities awarded the project contract, pushing aside eight other bidders.

Other bidders

The bidders that seem to have lost out were major local and international contracting firms, including Societe Egyptienne Denterprises, Larsen & Toubro, Towell Infrastructure Projects and Nagarjuna Construction Company, according to the Tender Board website. However, Public Authority for Electricity & Water officials did not comment on awarding the project.

Desalination plant

The Quriyyat desalination plant, with a capacity to produce 200,000 cubic metres of water per day (44 million gallons per day), is expected to start commercial operation in May, 2017. It appears that the pipeline construction will take two years since it has to be in place once the desalination plant starts water generation. The Quriyyat water desalination project is part of a series of desalination projects planned by Oman Power and Water Procurement Company to keep up with the demand for water in Oman, which increases at an annual rate of about 6 per cent.

Hyflux, which signed several agreements for building the project recently, will design, build, own and operate the plant and deliver water to Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP) Company for a period of 20 years.

© Times of Oman 2015