Recently, a winning bid notification letter from Dubai City Hall was officially delivered in the office of China Construction Middle East Company. Project number TF-15-C2, the construction content is about 20 kilometers of rainwater drainage pipeline network between Albasha and Alkuz communities. This is not an ordinary infrastructure section - it is an important component of Dubai's 30 billion dirhams Tasreef plan and a key milestone for China Construction Middle East in Dubai's underground drainage sector.

30 billion dirhams underground Great Wall

In June 2024, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtam, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Chief of Dubai, officially approved the launch of the Tasreef program with a total investment of 30 billion dirhams, approximately 8.2 billion US dollars. This is the largest municipal drainage project in the Middle East to date, with the goal of increasing Dubai's drainage capacity by 700%, with a daily rainwater treatment capacity of 20 million cubic meters, a designed service life of 100 years, and expected to be fully completed by 2033. In February 2026, Dubai City Hall awarded a contract worth 2.5 billion dirhams for the second phase of the plan, covering approximately 430 million square meters in 30 key areas and planned to serve around 3 million residents by 2040. The TF-15-C2 project won by China Construction Middle East is an important component of this grand plan.

A revolution hastened by a rainstorm

The underground drainage revolution in Dubai did not come out of thin air. In April 2024, a historic rainstorm paralyzed Dubai, flooded the city's main roads, delayed airport flights in a large area, and disrupted the transportation system, causing serious economic losses and urban operation crisis. The rainstorm made Dubai deeply realize that the drainage capacity of desert cities cannot be tested only when the rainstorm comes. From the top-level approval in June 2024, to the overall contracting and landing of Tasreef Phase II in February 2026, and to the acquisition of the segmented pipeline network section by China Construction Middle East in July 2026, the entire process from planning to construction has been completed in less than two years. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, urban infrastructure, international cooperation

The Road from Building Buildings to Building Cities

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation in the Middle East, China Construction Middle East Company was established in 2003 and is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is one of the largest international engineering contractors in the Middle East region. In the field of municipal drainage, the company has formed a continuous project matrix: won the bid for the TF-11-C1 Dubai Land area rainwater storage tank and drainage pipeline project in December 2025; Participated in the second phase of the Tasreef drainage network project worth 2.5 billion dirhams in Dubai in February 2026; We won the bid for the TF-15-C2 rainwater drainage pipeline network project in July 2026. In the field of transportation infrastructure, in 2026, China Construction Middle East will undertake the civil engineering of the Abu Dhabi section of the Abu Dhabi Dubai high-speed railway project as a joint venture. The Dubai Island cross sea bridge project can shorten the travel time between Rashid Port and Dubai Island from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. From cross sea bridges to high-speed railways, from community infrastructure to a 20 kilometer rainwater pipeline network, China Construction Middle East is moving from building buildings to building cities.Editor/Gao Xue