Three companies and groups have been selected to tender for the first stage of the Project Shotover wastewater upgrade scheme.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has budgeted $35.9 million for a staged upgrade of the plant over 13 years.
Proposals were received from United Group Ltd, Infrasol and Downer Construction Ltd, which made two separate submissions.
They were chosen from six companies or joint ventures which put forward preliminary proposals for designing, building and operating stage 1 of the new wastewater treatment plant.
It involves building a treatment plant for purifying and removing solids at the site of the existing treatment ponds, downstream of the Shotover bridge.
The plant will service Queenstown, Arrowtown, Frankton, Quail Rise, Arthurs Point and Lake Hayes.
The wastewater system upgrade has been planned for many years, having been approved by the Environment Court in May 2010 after the consents for the project were appealed.
