$2bn Bahrain Metro Phase One bid evaluation 'by month-end'
MANAMA, July 14, 2022
Evaluation of the prequalification bids submitted by top infrastructure majors for Bahrain Metro Phase One project will conclude by the end of this month, said a report citing the kingdom's Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Mohammed Al Kaabi.
"The Bahrain Metro is being implemented in four phases with the first one comprising two lines running 29-km-long covering 20 stations. Currently a technical team is studying the bids for Phase One which is set to conclude by the month-end," Al Kaabi told Akhbar Al Khaleej, our sister publcation.
It represents the first phase of the Bahrain government’s ambitious plans of developing a 109-km rail based urban transit network (Metro) that consists of an elevated corridor with two lines having an estimated length of 28.6 km with 20 stations and two interchanges.
A total of 11 leading global infrastructure majors - including French sustainable mobility expert Alstom, Korea's Hyundai Engineering and Indian construction conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) are in the race for Phase One of the 109-km-long Bahrain Metro system, as reported earlier byTradeArabia News Service.
The others vying for the contract include Chinese heavyweights Harbour Engineering and China Railway Group, Plenary Asia (Singapore); Virtue Global Holding (UK) and CRRC (Hong Kong) Company in addition to regional heavyweight Orascom Construction (Egypt).
Two of Bahrain's leading utility majors - Aradous Energy Generation Company and Taqi Mohammed Albaharana Trading Establishment - are also in the fray.
The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication is looking to procure the project as an integrated public private partnership (PPP) through a two-stage process comprising a prequalification followed by the main tender process.
According to the ministry, the selected private partner will implement the project on DBFOMT (design, build, finance, operate, maintain, transfer) basis with a contract period of 35 years.
Estimated to cost around $2 billion, the Bahrain Metro project marks an important milestone as it will provide a fast, comfortable, reliable, sustainable and modern transportation system in the kingdom, thereby improving the standards of living, stated the ministry.
With this state-of the art, fully automated, driverless metro system, MTT plans to develop an efficient public transport service in the kingdom, it added.
TradeArabia had earlier reported the ministry had appointed a team of financial, technical, and legal advisors led by KPMG as the lead transaction advisor, Egis as the technical advisor and DLA Piper as the legal advisor for procurement of this project on a PPP basis.-TradeArabia News Service
