Kharafi's low bid is just over 7 per cent cheaper than the next best offer of KD 56.9 million ($196 million) submitted by the local Mushrif Trading & Contracting. United Gulf Construction Company (UGCC), also local, is ranked third on price at ($199 million).

The scope of works covers the construction and connection to the water network of a 345,000-cubic-metre-a-day sewage treatment plant at Kabad. The 28-month contract includes about a year's worth of design work.

The successful contractor will also be responsible for decommissioning the existing treatment plant at Jahra, converting it to a main pumping station and connecting it to the new plant at Kabad via a 38-kilometre-long 1,400 millimetre-diameter ductile iron pipeline. The contractor will also build a 15-kilometre-long pipeline to the Sulaibiya wastewater treatment plant.

Bids are due on 9 April for a major contract to create a wastewater reservoir at Umm al-Rehmam dry lake in the north, near the Iraqi border. A total of 14 local grade 1 contractors are prequalified to bid (MEED 13:1:06).