Chennai company bags Rs 3,251 crore sewage plant order in Saudi

CHENNAI: VA Tech Wabag, a multinational technology company in the water sector, has secured a consortium order valuing about Rs 3,251 crore ($371 million) for setting up an Independent Sewage Treatment Plant (ISTP) at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

The consortium order from Al Haer Environmental Services Company towards Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) is for building a 200 MLD ISTP, the company said in a statement here on Sunday. The facility is being developed by a consortium of Miahona Company (lead), Marafiq, and N.V. Besix S.A. for its off-taker, the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC). SWPC is the principal off-taker for water and wastewater projects in Saudi Arabia, it said.

The EPC consortium for this project comprises Wabag and Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting Company (MGC). While Wabag as the technology partner and leader of the EPC consortium will design and build the ISTP, MGC will undertake the scope of laying the transmission pipelines and construction of the reservoirs, it said. Sivakumar V, regional head - sales and marketing, said, "This order marks another significant milestone for us in Saudi Arabia and reinforces our leadership position in the Middle East region."

Wabag has presence in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East for more than four decades. The Chennai-headquartered company has executed over 30 large and marquee water and wastewater treatment projects in Saudi Arabia.

The new order comes two months after a tender for another order, which the company had secured in Sep 2024 from the Saudi Water Authority valued Rs 2,700 crore for a 300 MLD desalination plant in Yanbu of Saudi Arabia, was cancelled. When contacted, an official spokesperson with Wabag said, tender for the Yanbu project has been recently re-announced. "We are currently preparing the bid and will submit the same. The earlier tender was cancelled due to the internal decision of the customer. What we understand is that they decided to change some specifications/scope, etc of the project. Being a public procurement process, they had to only adopt the process of cancelling and retendering the project," the spokesperson added.