The ambitious project, which is aimed at easing congestion on the existing route, will be built on a public-private partnership (PPP) model, reported Reuters, citing sources who attended an industry consultation event in Manama, Bahrain.

The last date for submitting the EoIs has been set at June 29, stated the sources.

Advisers will be appointed in the first quarter of 2018 and pre-qualification requests are due to be issued in the second quarter of next year, they added. 

The meeting in Manama was attended by officials from the transportation ministries of the two countries and more than 150 companies keen to take part in the mega project.

Besides a new four-lane road causeway running parallel to the existing one, there will be a new 70-km railway connecting a passenger terminal in Salmabad and freight facilities at Khalifa bin Salman port in Bahrain to the Saudi railway system.

The railway project is likely to be developed under a design, build, transfer, or design, build, maintain and transfer basis, the sources added.

The project is expected to be owned by the private sector through a new company with a 25-30-year PPP arrangement.

The existing 25-km King Fahd causeway, which has been open since 1986, received an average daily traffic of 31,000 passengers last year. But that is expected to double by 2030, said the Reuters report.

Once completed, eight million passengers are expected to use the rail link per year by 2050 and some 600,000 containers and 13 million tonnes of bulk freight are expected to be transported by the railway.