Egypt’s Construction Authority for Potable Water & Wastewater (CAPW) has invited companies to submit bids for the contract to provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services for the upcoming Gabal el-Asfar wastewater treatment plant in Cairo.

Companies have until 2 April to submit bids for the O&M contract at the plant, which will have a capacity of 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

In October 2013, CAPW awarded a contract to a consortium of the local Hassan Allam Construction, Spain’s Acciona and Germany’s Passavant to build the plant. The consortium, led by Hassan Allam Construction, had submitted the low bid for the contract in August 2012.

The Gabal el-Asfar project will have a catchment area covering the middle and lower parts of the eastern part of Cairo, which currently houses about 8 million people. The project will take four years to complete.

Egypt is also planning to build a public-private partnership (PPP) wastewater treatment plant at Abu Rawash. CAPW prequalified four groups for the contract to build the Abu Rawash plant in May 2013.

The client reopened prequalification in January 2013, after the process was delayed by the Egyptian uprising and changes in the specification of the project. Originally, the PPP Central Unit had produced a list of prequalified companies allowed to bid for the construction contract for the plant in early 2011.

The four groups that have been prequalified for the project are:

• Degremont Company (France)
• Hochtief-led consortium: Hochtief (Germany), Metito (UAE), PWT (US)
• Kharafi National Company (Kuwait)
• Orascom-led consortium: Orascom Construction (local), Aqualia (Spain), Veolia (France), Icat (local)

The winning bidder will sign a 20-year PPP agreement for the design, financing and construction of a secondary treatment stage, sludge management facilities and cogeneration unit.

Power from the cogeneration unit will feed into the wastewater treatment project. The costs associated with adding power generation to the project is to be reflected in higher bid prices.

CAPW is receiving technical assistance from the PPP Central Unit of the Finance Ministry. The UK’s Trowers & Hamlins and KPMG are the government’s legal and financial advisers respectively.