Egypt has moved a step closer to constructing the world's biggest pumping station, now that a consortium led by Kvaerner of Norway and Hitachi Corporation has won a $434 m contract to build the plant over four years. The Toshka project is the most ambitious being undertaken along the Nile Basin. It will pump 5.5 bn cu m of water a year into a 67km canal to irrigate up to 500,000 acres of desert land.