The Water & Effluent Treatment (WET) business of Indian multinational enterprise Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has signed a contract with Acwa Power, a major developer in the Middle East, to build the Ras Mohaisen Desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.

The WET unit won the order in a joint venture with Spanish construction engineering firm Lantania,, wherein it will be the lead partner, the company said.

L&T has classified it as a ‘large’ contract with a value between $287.17 million and $574 million.

Ras Mohaisen Desalination plant will have a capacity of 300,000 cu m/day. The project’s scope includes design, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant.

It encompasses intake and outfall facilities, process units, pumping stations, 600,000 cu m potable water storage facility and associated works along with state-of-the-art automation and instrumentation systems. A solar PV plant is also part of the project scope.

The plant will serve as a drinking water source for Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Al-Baha regions, benefiting about one million population.

This is the second desalination order that L&T has received in Saudi Arabia in the recent past and it strengthens WET’s presence in the Middle East region.