The Water & Irrigation Ministry has given companies, contractors and financial institutions until 18 May to submit applications for prequalification for the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract to develop the estimated $600 million Disi Mudawarra-Amman water conveyor project.

A shortlist of prequalified companies is expected to be issued by early June, ministry officials say.

The 14 groups that expressed interest in the project earlier this year have qualified to participate in the tender's next stage.

The project involves the extraction of water from an aquifer in the Disi-Mudawarra area and the construction of a 325-kilometre pipeline to transport 100 million cubic metres a year to the capital (MEED 31:3:06).