Qatar has received bids from at least nine consortiums for the first major construction contract on the New Doha port project.

The winning consortium will have to excavate 58 million cubic metres of material covering an area of 3.2 square kilometres and to a depth of 18 metres and build 8 kilometres of quay wall, and a 5km-long rubble breakwater.

The consortiums that have submit bids are:

• Jan de Nul (Belgium), STFA (Turkey), Impregilo (Italy)
• Van Oord (Netherlands), Six Construct (Belgium), Bam (Netherlands)
• Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea), Al-Jaber (local)
• Archirodon Construction (Geneva-registered), Consolidated Contractors Company (Athens-based), Teyseer Contracting (local)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea), Boskalis (Netherlands)
• Al-Habtoor Leighton Group (Australia/UAE)
• Middle East Dredging Company (local), Dredging International (Belgium), MT Hojgaard Al-Obaidly (local/Denmark)
• Qatari Diar Investment Company (local), Vinci Construction Grands Projets (France), Sinohydro (China), Redco International (local)
• China Harbour Engineering Company (Beijing-based)

The first phase will have a capacity of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a 15-metre-deep approach channel, an 8- to 13.5-metre-deep harbour basin and berths for general cargo, including vessels from the Qatari and visiting navies (MEED 23:2:10).

The New Doha Port Project Steering Committee is the project client and is aiming to finish the first phase of the project in 2014. It declined to comment on the tender and the identity of the bidders (MEED 26:2:10).

Australia’s WorleyParsons is the engineering consultant on the project and US-based Aecom is the programme manager of the scheme.

The New Doha Port will be built at Mesaieed, south of Doha, and will replace the existing Doha port on the city’s Corniche. The new port will support industrial development in the area.

Two later phases are also planned, which will add 8 million TEUs a year to the port’s total capacity.