Algeria’s Enterprise Metro d’Alger has invited engineering firms to bid on the contract to design and manage the construction of a new tram line at Mostaganem in the northwest of Algeria.

The rail authority has set a 3 August deadline for bids on the contract, which covers detailed designs and the monitoring and supervision of construction work.

Mostaganem is a port city and the capital of Mostaganem province.

Enterprise Metro d’Alger wants the first metro line to run to 12 kilometres in length. The line will run from the resort town of Sablettes to the university of Kharouba and then pass through Mostaganem before running onto the town of De Tijd.

The tramway is tentatively scheduled for completion in 2014.

Algeria is investing heavily in developing its transport infrastructure. The country’s budget for transport development between 2010 and 2014 is $30bn.

Other countries across North Africa are also focusing on improving their rail networks as a way of reducing congestion and increasing passenger travel in urban areas.

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria are all either building new metro systems or expanding existing networks.

Libya is scheduled to issue construction tender documents for a metro in Tripoli later this year (MEED 9:5:10).