Feasibility study for the Red Sea - Dead Sea Canal project
The World Bank chooses Coyne et Bellier to carry out the feasibility study for the Red Sea - Dead Sea Canal project.
Coyne et Bellier, a subsidiary of Tractebel Engineering (SUEZ) has won the contract for the technical-economic and environmental feasibility study for the canal project linking the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. The feasibility study, lasting 24 months, will amount to a sum of nearly USD 7 million.
The project will consist of transporting, via a 200 km long canal, around two billion m³ of water per year with the aim of restoring the water level of the Dead Sea, a natural, historical and economic site of foremost importance. It also provides for drinking water production, in particular for the urban agglomeration of Amman, and electricity generation. It will provide the beneficiary countries of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority with an opportunity to cooperate on a major project, thereby promoting the efforts for peace in the region.
This study will be overseen by a Technical Committee consisting of representatives from the World Bank and the countries concerned: Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The total cost of the study, which will last 24 months, is estimated at USD 7 million. The financing for it will be provided by France, Japan, the United States of America, the Netherlands and Greece.
Around twenty international groups had expressed their interest in this study and six of them were selected to present a tender. After a hotly contested process, the proposal from the group led by Coyne et Bellier was judged by the World Bank to be the most appropriate. Coyne et Bellier will work in association with Tractebel Development Engineering, a Belgian subsidiary of Tractebel Engineering (SUEZ), and KEMA Nederland BV in the Netherlands.
