Algeria’s Enterprise Metro d’Alger (Ema) is inviting companies to submit bids by 1 December for a contract to carry out the first extension of the Algiers metro.

The extension will run from Hai el-Badr in the centre of Algiers to el-Harrach Centre in the east of the city.

The scope of the project involves carrying out the civil works, installing passenger stations and other equipment and systems required. The extension will have four stations and will run for four kilometres.

In August, Ema invited companies to submit bids by 27 September to carry out feasibility studies to build nine new tramway lines in nine different cities.

Algeria is planning to build more than 200 tram lines across 14 cities over the next 10 years. The investment is due to worsening congestion in the major cities across the country. Forecasts show that about 20 cities in Algeria will have populations of more than 200,000 people over the same period.

The Algerian government has pledged to spend $30bn developing its transport infrastructure by 2014.