Register for MEED's guest programme 

The team that won the contract to develop and operate a multi-utilities infrastructure for the 4,155 square-kilometre Amaala tourism scheme along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast has selected a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contractor (EPC) for the project.

The construction arm of India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has been chosen as the turnkey EPC contractor to establish various systems related to renewable energy generation and utilities, L&T announced on 27 December.

“In line with the ambition of going beyond sustainability and having a regenerative impact on the environment, the project awarded to L&T will have an optimised off-grid renewable energy system comprising of 250MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant and a 700 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system,” L&T said.

Related read: Masdar eyes major Saudi expansion

The scope for the power systems also involves biofuel-based internal combustion engines, three gas-insulated substations, high-voltage transmission lines and medium-voltage distribution networks.

The project’s water systems scope involves constructing a 37 million litre-a-day (MLD) seawater reverse osmosis plant, six MLD sewage treatment plants, marine works including intake and outfall, tank farms, a potable water network, wastewater network and treated sewage effluent network.

Red Sea Global awarded the Amaala multi-utilities contract to a team comprising France’s EDF and UAE-based Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) in September last year.

MEED also reported the same month that the multi-utilities contract awarded is valued at $2bn.

MEED understands another French firm, Suez, will implement the water infrastructure component of the project.

Amaala, which was planning the project before merging with The Red Sea Development Company to form Red Sea Global in October 2022, issued the tender for the contract in October 2021. It will be developed using a public-private partnership model.

In February 2022, Amaala appointed Austria-headquartered ILF Consulting Engineers as technical adviser for the multi-utilities project.

Concession agreement

The developer consortium will be responsible for the development; financing; engineering, procurement, construction and installation; testing and commissioning; insurance; ownership; operation and maintenance; and transfer of each infrastructure system under a 25-year concession agreement.  

Each system will be transferred to Amaala at the end of the concession term.

Owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, Amaala includes three communities – Triple Bay, the Coastal Development and the Island – each consisting of several residential, hospitality and retail components.

Construction works on phase one of Triple Bay have started.

The scheme is part of the Amaala tourism destination development project.