Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) will open commercial offers on 6 March for the contract to design and build the new metro link connecting to the Expo 2020 site.

The bidders are:

• Mapa Gunal (Turkey) / China Railway Group (China) / CSR Corporation (China)
• Acciona (Spain) / Gulermak (Turkey) / Alstom (France)
• Obayashi (Japan) / Wade Adams (local) / Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC; Athens-based) / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan)
• Orascom (Egypt) / Yapi Merkezi (Turkey) / GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Siemens (Germany)
• Nurol (Turkey) / Astaldi (Italy) / Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Spain)

The scheme, known as Route 2020, involves building a 15-kilometre-long line branching off the existing Red Line at the Nakheel Harbour & Tower station, between the Ibn Battuta Mall and Jumeirah Lake Towers stations. The line will also connect to Al-Maktoum International airport.

About 11km of the line will be elevated, with five elevated stations and two underground stations.