25 August 2015
MUSCAT: The joint venture of well-known Omani contracting firm Hasan Juma Backer Trading & Contracting Co LLC (HJB) and India's Tatva Global Environment, one of the largest providers of waste management services in the subcontinent, has been awarded a contract valued at around $20 million for the design and construction of an Integrated Waste Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility in Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the Sultanate's Wusta coast.

The Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm (SEZAD), which regulates the development of this massive green-field industrial and maritime hub, oversaw the competitive process for the award of the contract on behalf of Oman Environmental Services Holding Co (Be'ah), the wholly government-owned entity tasked with managing the solid waste sector.

SEZAD is spending several billions of dollars in the development of basic infrastructure, utilities and support services that will help drive investment inflows into Duqm, billed as the Middle East's largest free zone development. An integral component of this infrastructure is a modern landfill that will receive for treatment and disposal the massive amounts of waste streams expected to be generated by industries operating within the hub.

According to officials, the HJB-Tatva JV will undertake the Phase 1 development of an integrated waste treatment scheme featuring a pair of landfills dedicated to the storage of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste respectively. Additional storage capacity, along with support infrastructure, is envisaged in subsequent phases of the project's development.

As part of the contract, the JV is required to design and build a landfill cell covering an area of around 80,000 sq metres that will be earmarked for municipal solid wastes. As with all modern landfills being developed by Be'ah across the Sultanate, the Duqm facility will feature composite lining facilities and a leachate collection and removal system. Evaporation ponds of around 5,000 cubic metre capacity are envisioned as well.

The landfill for industrial waste, on the other hand, will be engineered to handle some of the more lethal waste streams that will emanate from Duqm's industries. A roughly 10,000 sq metre landfill cell, suitably reinforced with double composite lining facilities, as well as leachate detection, collection and removal system, has been planned. Special buildings will be constructed for the storage, pre-sorting, sampling and quarantining of industrial waste.

For the HJB-Tatva JV, the Duqm contract has helped cement the partnership's dominance of the Sultanate's landfill development and waste management market. The JV has already scooped contracts to build engineered landfills in Barka, Sur and Sohar on behalf of Be'ah. Earlier this week, it added Ibri to its expanding portfolio of contracts.

Tatva, HJB's JV partner, is billed as one of India's largest and most diversified providers of waste management services, encompassing collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of regular and hazardous solid waste; handling, recycling and disposal of waste water; sewage treatment; planning and management of water supply to homes and industries as well as the production of valuable energy from waste. Its customer base includes cities, townships, municipalities, industrial estates, and commercial, industrial and residential customers across the country.

© Oman Daily Observer 2015