A consortium of Spanish group Cobra and Saudi-based Tawzea has been chosen as the preferred bidder for the development of an independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) near Taif city in the kingdom's Makkah province.

The winning consortium will be responsible for the development, design, financing, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the 270,000-cu-m-per-day capacity plant, writes R Sushil Nair for TradeArabia News Service.

The Taif ISTP is being developed as part of the kingdom's Vision 2030 which recognises the critical importance of ensuring the future reliable provision of sewage treatment services for the kingdom's residents.

According to SWPC officials, the Cobra-Tawzea consortium was picked as the preferred bidder for its lowest bid (107.9 Halala per cu m) as against the consortia of Aqualia-AlKhorayef  (116.28); Metito- Mowah-Al Jomaih (149.27) and Orascom-Miahona (150.48).

In line with the Saudi utility firm's ambitious programme, a series of new ISTPs will be commisioned to meet the future sewage treatment requirements of the kingdom, they added.

A strategic project for the region, the Taif ISTP has several leading global industry experts in the advisory role.

Mizuho Bank will act as the lead and financial advisor, while White & Case LLP is the legal advisor and WS Atkins & Partners Overseas Engineering Consultants are the technical advisors.

Others who had prequalified to bid for the project include Spain's Acciona Agua, France's Suez, Korea's Samsung Engineering, China's Gezhouba Group, Japan's Marubeni Corporation, said senior SWPC officials.

A total of 66 developer consortiums had early this year submitted their expressions of interest (EoIs), of which more than half were from local developers keen to clinch the country's ambitious project, they stated.

French sewage project specialist Suez International, Veolia Middle East and Saur had expressed interest in the project along with Spain's Abengoa, Dutch group Arkoil Technologies besides Korean heavyweights Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction and Posco along with Japanese firms Hitachi and Sumitomo and the lone Turkish group Yenigun Group.

Asian heavyweights China and India too had jumped into the fray both as part of a consortium and as sole developers, said the SWPC officials.

The big names who submitted their EoIs included China Energy Engineering Corporation; China Harbour Engineering Arabia; China Machinery Engineering Corporation; Jinluo Water Co besides Indian groups Passavant Energy and Environment and Va Tech Wabag, they added.-TradeArabia News Service