Algeria’s Enterprise Metro d’Alger (EMA) has invited companies to submit bids by 12 December for the operating concession of the tramway’s $320m Eastern Line.

The first phase of the Eastern line of the tramway will be 16.3 kilometres long and will have 30 stations. It is scheduled to open in late 2010 and will be integrated with Line 1 of Algiers metro. The tramway will serve the area to the east of Algiers, from the Carrefour des Fusilles (Hussein Dey) to the centre of Dergana close to the airport. The expected passenger traffic of the tramway network will be 150,000 passengers a day.

France’s Alstom with Italy’s Todini Construction and the local ETRHB Hadad Group won the turnkey contract in 2006. France’s Systra and RATP Developpement and the local Assistance a la Construction is the consultant (MEED 23:6:06).

The line is the first of two phases on the Eastern line. The second phase will comprise building a 6.9km track with eight stations. It will run from Bordj el-Kiffrane to Dergana.

Algeria currently has a number of rail projects under way and has a budget of $30bn to be spent on transport development between 2010-14. Projects include the Algiers metro and a metro network planned in Oran, where there is already a tram network under construction. EMA is also planning to build a tram system in Mostaganem in the northwest of the country. Bids to design and manage construction of the system were submitted on 3 August.

EMA is a division of Algeria’s Transport Ministry.