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Dubai seeks financial advisers for Jebel Ali STP package

4 March 2025

Dubai Municipality has invited firms to prequalify for a contract to provide financial advisory services for the procurement of the third phase of the extension of the Jebel Ali sewage treatment plant (STP) in the emirate.

The municipality expects to receive statements of qualifications by 12 March, Fahd Al-Awadhi, director of the drainage and recycled water projects department at Dubai Municipality, said in a social media post on 3 March.

Phase three of the Jebel Ali STP extension will be procured as a public-private partnership (PPP) project, and the selected financial adviser will be working closely with the technical and other advisers appointed by Dubai Municipality to provide end-to-end advisory services on the procurement of a developer for the project.

Called DS150/3, the project's concession period is expected to be 30 years.

In October last year, Dubai Municipality sought engineering consultancy companies to prequalify for a contract to provide advisory services for phases one and two of the planned expansion of the Jebel Ali STP.

The expansion and upgrade of the Jebel Ali STP is one of the six packages comprising the $22bn Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels (DSST) project, which is being procured using a PPP model.

Another package comprises the rehabilitation and expansion of the existing Warsan STP, for which Dubai Municipality sought advisers in January 2024.

DSST packages

The procurement processes for the two STP packages are being run separately from those for the four tunnels, links and terminal pump stations that make up the $22bn DSST project.

MEED understands that the tenders for the Warsan and Jebel Ali STP packages are expected to be issued once the DSST project's first four components get under way.

Under the current plan, the DSST project is broken down into six packages, which will be tendered as PPP packages with concession periods lasting between 25 and 35 years.

The first package, J1, comprises Jebel Ali tunnels (North) and terminal pump stations (TPS). The tunnels will extend approximately 42 kilometres (km), and the links will extend 10km. 

The second package, J2, covers the southern section of the Jebel Ali tunnels, which will extend 16km and have a link stretching 46km.

W for Warsan, the third package, comprises 16km of tunnels, TPS and 46km of links.

J3, the fourth package, comprises 129km of links.

J1, J2, W and J3 will comprise the deep sewerage tunnels, links and TPS (TLT) components of the overall project.

J1, J2 and W will be procured under a design-build-finance-operate-maintain model with a concession period of 25-35 years.

J3 will be procured under a design-build-finance model with a concession period of 25-35 years. Once completed, Dubai Municipality will operate J3, unlike the first three packages, which are planned to be operated and maintained by the winning PPP contractors.  

Dubai currently has two major sewerage catchments. The first, in Deira, is known as Warsan, where the Warsan STP treats the flow.

The second catchment is in Bur Dubai, where wastewater is treated at the Jebel Ali STP.

The municipality is expected to issue the tender for the DSST's first two tunnels and links packages imminently.

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Published on 1 February 2025 and distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February MEED Business Review includes:

> WATER & WASTEWATER: Water projects require innovation
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