The Council for Development & Reconstruction (CDR) will announce in early August the companies prequalified to bid for construction contracts worth about $200 million on the Litani River Authority (LRA) Conveyor 800 project.

Project sources say a meeting to agree the list of prequalifiers will be held at the end of July between the CDR and the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (AFESD), which is funding the project.

The sources say the CDR has submitted to AFESD an undisclosed list of five names for approval. It is possible the list may be expanded. The CDR received in March prequalification documents from 19 groups of local and international firms. Interested companies are required to have significant tunnelling experience.

Prequalified companies will be eligible to bid for three separate construction packages on the project. The first package to be offered is likely to cover construction of the 5.5-kilometre Yohmor tunnel, a connection to the existing Markabe tunnel, headworks structures and a crossing over the Litani river.

The consultant is a joint venture between Lahmeyer Internationaland Gauff Ingenieure, both of Germany, and the local Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners- MEED 2:4:04; 30:1:04).