Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipality and Transport (DMAT) is currently preparing a set of recommendations on the timeline and budget required for the emirate’s planned metro and tramway networks.

The recommendations will be forwarded to the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, whose final approval is necessary before any of the planned schemes can advance to the procurement stage.

It is understood that tenders for both schemes are to be released in 2018, according to a source familiar with the project. “The understanding since late 2015 is that the project will go to market in 2018… so far there are no indications of a change in that timeline,” the source tells MEED.

In 2012, the Abu Dhabi Executive Council approved the budget for the consultancy work on both schemes. A team of US-based Aecom, US-based Parsons Brinckerhoff and Germany’s DB International won the study and preliminary design contract for the metro element in 2012. A Spanish joint venture of Typsa and Sener was awarded the consultancty contract for the planned LRT.

The following year the ownership of the project moved from the Department of Transport, which has started the process to prequalify contractors for the project, to the Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada).

Musanada was expected to issue the tenders by the end of 2014, but this was delayed. In late 2015, it is understood that the preliminary designs were completed and that the tender documents were “70 per cent complete.”

The ownership of the projects has since been moved to the DMAT.