LOCAL and international firms specialising in public transportation can now apply for a pre-qualification tender as phase one of the Bahrain Metro project is flagged off.

Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Kamal Ahmed yesterday announced the launch of a tender to develop the 109km rail-based urban transit network at an estimated cost of between $1 billion and $2bn.

It is among the 22 signature projects that will see more than $30bn invested in the national infrastructure as part of the ‘Strategic Projects Plan’ under Bahrain’s Economic Recovery Plan.

Mr Ahmed said that the Bahrain Metro project aims to support economic growth by attracting additional foreign direct investment and large multinational companies, thereby enhancing Bahrain’s competitiveness.

“The Bahrain Metro project is one of the most important land transport projects providing a new sustainable mode of transportation in the kingdom, aiming to achieve Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030,” he said.

The driverless GoA4 (Grade of Automation 4) system will have an initial capacity of approximately 5,000 passengers per hour per direction, or passengers per hour in peak direction (PPHPD), with the scope for scalability and expandability to 23,000 PPHPD for each line.

Ridership in the initial few years of operation is expected to be around 200,000 per day, with growth expected as more travellers shift from using their private cars to the metro.

“The first phase of the Bahrain Metro project will be carried out with the private sector as an integrated public-private partnership (PPP),” said Mr Ahmed.

“The pre-qualification tender stage is the first step to identify suitably experienced and qualified individual company or a consortium of companies with relevant expertise to implement the project under Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain-Transfer (DBFOMT) model.”

The DBFOMT is expected to be for a contract period of 35 years, according to the ministry’s website.

Phase one of the project includes two elevated corridors with two lanes with a total length of 29km and 20 stations, connecting Muharraq, Manama, Diplomatic Area, Juffair, Seef District, Tubli, Adhari and Isa Town.

The proposed metro stations in the red corridor include Seef District, Manama, Bahrain Bay, Muharraq and Bahrain International Airport.

The blue corridor covers Juffair, Diplomatic Area, Manama, Al Farouq Junction, Salmaniya, Adhari, Isa Town and the Educational Area.

Interchanges are proposed at Bab Al Bahrain and the Central Market stations.

The ministry said that it has appointed a team of financial, technical, and legal advisers led by KPMG as the lead transaction adviser, Egis as the technical adviser and DLA Piper as the legal adviser for procurement of this project on a PPP basis.

The tender closes on March 2, 2022 at 1.30pm.

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