Oman Rail has issued tenders to build a further 1,207km of railway infrastructure, as part of its efforts to speed up the implementation of the country’s national rail network.
The infrastructure expansion would link the three maritime gateways at Sohar, Duqm and Salalah with the national rail network and the rail system across the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).
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With these tenders, the national railway company intends to build an additional three segments of the nine-segment rail network, which could be worth between AED22bn ($6bn) and AED29.3bn ($8bn), according to the Oman Daily Observer.
The second, third and fourth segments will cover the distance between Hafeet on Oman’s border to Salalah in Dhofar Governorate through Haima and Duqm.
The first segment of the project represents 207km-long stretch connecting Sohar Port (Batinah North Governorate) to Buraimi on the Sultanate’s border with the UAE, and the contract for this segment is expected to be announced in the third quarter of this year.
Bidders from five Italian-led consortia, three Chinese-led groups, two Indian firms and Korea’s Hyundai and Austria’s Porr have shown interest in building the first phase of the project.
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By GlobalDataEarlier this month, Oman Rail noted that the list had been reduced to five, and that the second stage of the process will now review the financial aspects of the bids.
Companies that made it to the second stage of bidding are Salini Impregilo, China State Construction Engineering with SK E&C, Saipem with Rizzani de Eccher, Larsen & Toubro with FCC Construcción and local partner Khalid bin Ahmed and Sons and Porr Bau with Yüksel, Sarooj Construction and Daewoo.
