Dubai will increase its spending on infrastructure by 20 per cent, according to its budget for 2016.

On 27 December the government said it plans to spend AED6.4bn ($1.74bn) on infrastructure in 2016, up from AED5.3bn in 2015, and is planning to maintain the size of its investments in infrastructure over the next five years.

The plans to spend 14 per cent of its AED46.1bn budget on infrastructure and the increase in spending indicates that recently awarded projects will move forward as planned and contracts that are being tendered will be awarded in 2016.

The largest government contract being tendered is for an extension to Dubai Metro connecting to the Dubai Expo 2020 site, which is known as Route 2020.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is preparing to receive bids from contractors on 10 January for the design-and-build contract that involves building a 15-kilometre-long line branching off the existing Red Line at the Nakheel Harbour & Tower station, between the Ibn Battuta Mall and Jumeirah Lake Towers stations.

The RTA is also preparing to award a series of road construction contracts after receiving bids from contractors for work on schemes such as the parallel roads and the Shindagha crossing.

Another major government project is Dubai Municipality’s expansion to the Jebel Ali sewage treatment plant. Contractors submitted bids in early December for the project, with the local/Belgian Bel Hasa Six Construct submitting a low bid of AED1.319bn ($359m).

The municipality is planning to increase the capacity of the existing Jebel Ali sewage treatment plant (STP) by 375,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), bringing it to 675,000 cm/d.

The government infrastructure projects will be supplemented by other projects developed by government related entities such as Meraas, Nakheel, Emaar, and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.