The local office of France’s Bureau Veritas has been awarded a contract to provide independent checking services for a consortium working on the Riyadh Metro project.

Bureau Veritas will provide independent technical oversight of the design and build work carried out by the Bacs consortium, which is working on the $9.45bn first package of the multibillion-dollar Riyadh metro scheme. The first package covers the construction of lines 1 and 2.  The contract is for 60 months.

The Bacs consortium is led by the US’ Bechtel, and consists of the local Almabani General Contractors, Germany’s Siemens, and Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC).

The client for the metro project, the Arriyadh Development Authority, awarded the three main packages to build the metro and supply rolling stock, in July 2013.

The planned metro network features six lines (Blue, Green, Red, Orange, Yellow and Purple). It will have 85 air-conditioned stations. The six lines will cover a total length of 180 kilometres.