Oman’s Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) has received bids from six local contractors for a contract to build a new pumping station at Ghubrah.

PAEW received bids from the six contractors on 18 March for the construction contract. The client has not released the prices submitted.

The six firms which submitted bids are:

• Al-Hajiry Trading (local)
• Al-Hassan Engineering (local)
• Galfar Engineering & Contracting (local)
• Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading (local)
• Oman National Engineering & Investment Company (local)
• Towell Infrastructure Projects (local)

The Ghubrah project is the latest of a number of projects that the sultanate is pushing ahead with as it seeks to improve its water infrastructure.

In February, a consortium led by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation signed the contract to develop an independent water project (IWP) at Ghubrah, located in the Muscat governorate.

Sumitomo, along with Spain’s Cadagua and Malaysia’s Malakoff International, signed the contract on 11 February to establish a project company that will obtain a licence to build, own and operate (BOO) the 42 million gallon-a-day plant. Sumitomo and Malakoff will each have a 45 per cent holding in the project, with Cadagua holding the remainder

Demand for water in the sultanate has increased at a faster rate than anticipated over the past year, prompting PAEW to revise the capacity-building plans for water projects. In June last year, PAEW awarded the local Galfar Engineering & Contracting a RO24m ($62.2m) contract to build a water distribution network in Nizwa in Al-Dakhiliya governorate.