The UAE’s Etihad Rail Company is inviting prequalified firms to submit bids by 4 May for the first civil engineering contract for the first phase of the $11bn federal railway.

The contract is an estimated AED2bn civil and track works package.

The prequalifiers are:

• Acciona (Spain)
• Advanced Rail Group (local/Australia)
• Al-Futtaim Carillion (local/UK)/Saif bin Darwish (local)
• Al-Geemi & Partners Contracting (local)/Al-Arrab Contracting Company (Saudi Arabia)
• Al-Jaber Group (local)/China Railway Construction Corporation (China)
• Arabtec Engineering Services (local)/Salini (Italy)
• Astaldi (Italy)/Nurol (Turkey)/Al-Meraikhi (local)
• Cebarco (Bahrain)/WCT (Malaysia)
• China Railway Engineering Corporation (China)/Nael & Bin Harmal (local)
• Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)/OHL (Spain)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/Laing O’Rourke (UK)/Al-Naboodah Contracting (local)
• Fujita Corporation (Japan)/Sagar Infra Rail International (Siril) (India)
• Hochtief (Germany)
• Hyundai (South Korea)/Ghantoot (local)
• Ircon International (India)/Tafseer Contracting (local)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)/Balfour Beatty (UK)/Kier Construction (UK)
• Obayashi Corporation (Japan)/Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan)
• Orascom (Egypt)/Implenia (Switzerland)
• Samsung (South Korea)/Impregilo (Italy)/Tristar (local)
• Saudi Binladin Group (Saudi Arabia)
• Strabag (Austria)/Joannou & Paraskevaides (Cyprus)/China Railway Construction Corporation (China)
• Tecnimont (Italy)/Saipem (Italy)/Ascon (local)/Dodsal (India)
• Yepi Merkezi (Turkey)/Arabian Construction Company (ACC) (local/Lebanon)/Aktor (Greece)

In a separate deal, consultants are also due to submit renewed bids for the project management consultancy (PMC) contract by 11 March. Union Railway cancelled the previous PMC contract with Parson-Systra in January and retendered the deal in February. Parsons-Systra, a joint venture of US-based Parsons International and France’s Systra, was due to be project manager on the first phase of the railway (MEED 30:11:10). Parsons was also invited to submit a renewed bid separately.

The UK’s Atkins will carry out preliminary engineering for the entire UAE railway. The first phase of the railway involves building a 265-kilometre track between the port of Ruwais and gas fields at Shah and Habshan. The first part of the work will involve building the line from Ruwais to Habshan, which will be able to transport 10,000 tonnes a day (t/d) of granulated sulphur. This will increase to 20,000 t/d when the line is completed to Shah.