440 proposals received for Saaf Pani project

LAHORE: The Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC) has received 440 proposals, including 64 from international companies, for pre-qualification for engineering, procurement and the construction of safe drinking water projects across the province.

The company had recently invited proposals for 14 contracts worth $1.15 billion. The 64 multinational companies are from Australia, Austria, China, France, Iran, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The authorities had arranged two roadshows in Dubai and China to attract the companies.



In the first phase, safe drinking water solutions (water filtration plants) will be implemented in 35 priority tehsils in 10 districts. More than 23 million people in 7,496 villages will have access to safe drinking water after the completion of the first phase. The evaluation of documents submitted by international companies is underway. Tender documents will then be floated for the award of contracts to the pre-qualified companies.

“It is due to our efforts that these many international companies have shown interest in the project. We have also facilitated visits by staffers from interested companies to the project sites so that they might have a better geographical understanding of the project,” PSPC CEO Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry said.

The $3 billion project will provide water to more than 50 million rural population in 137 tehsils (20,000 villages). So far, 80 water filtration plants have been installed in five tehsils in southern Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.