Bahrain’s Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications ­is expected to appoint either France’s Egis International or Spain’s Idom Ingenieria y Consultoria for the state’s planned light rail scheme very soon.

The two consultancy firms emerged with the two lowest commercial offers for the tender, according to the Bahrain Tender Board as of 1 September.

Idom Ingenieria offered $2.43m for the contract against Egis’ $2.54m.

Other firms that submitted an offer include:

• Aecom (US): $4.14m (option 1); $4.74m (option 2)
• Sener-Setec (Spain): $4.48m
• WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff (Canada): $5.43m
• Parsons Global Services (US): $5.56m

Several other consultancies that are understood to have submitted a technical offer were not included in the list of bid prices published by the Bahrain Tender Board in September.

Mariam Jumaan, undersecretary, land transportation and ports, at the ministry, told a MEED’s Mena Rail and Integrated Transport summit in October that a consultant has been selected and the formal letter of appointment is expected possibly in the coming weeks.

The project scope will include the network development phases, routes, specification and technology, procurement options, budget and drafting a request for prequalification, which will set the minimum functional requirements for the first phase.

Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed told MEED in February that the study would most likely take one year, which will be followed by the procurement phase in which the private sector is likely to be involved.

The study is understood to include looking into issues such as land allocation due to the high level of congestion in the capital Manama.

The light rail network for Manama is one of three major rail schemes for Bahrain. The other two are the King Fahd Causeway rail link and the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, which aim at improving transport links between the island and its immediate neighbours.