Salini Impregilo, an Italy-based global player in infrastructure construction, said its Fisia Italimpianti unit and a Spanish partner have been awarded a $255-million contract by Saudi-based Acwa Power to design and build a water desalination plant in the kingdom.

Located in the Shuaiba area on the western coast of Saudi Arabia, the plant will use reverse osmosis technology to deliver up to 250,000 cu m of water per day, supplying potable water to more than one million residents in the cities of Makkah, Jeddah and Taif.

As part of a joint venture in which it holds 50 per cent stake, Fisia Italimpianti has signed a limited notice to proceed (LNTP) with Acwa Power to start the preparatory work, said Salini Impregilo.

The joint venture expects the signing of a full notice to proceed (FNTP) by July 27 and to hand over the plant by May 2019.

This new order confirms Genoa-based Fisia Italimpianti as one of the world’s leading builders of large desalination plants, with more than 4 million cu m per day of installed capacity and one of the few able to deploy the two prevailing technologies used in the sector: thermal and reverse osmosis, it added.