Egypt’s Housing, Utilities & Urban Communities and Transport ministries have invited consultants to bid by 7 February for the contract to prepare the terms of reference and tender documents for the country’s first high-speed railway system and two monorail projects.

According to sources with knowledge of the project, the clients plan to appoint one consultant for the high-speed railway and another for the monorail projects.

It is understood that the invitation to bid for the consultancy package has been extended to 10 companies.

In addition to preparing the tender documents, the selected consultants will support the ministries in the evaluation of the bids and negotiations with the selected bidder.

MEED earlier reported that interested firms have until 28 January to submit their prequalification applications to the three schemes.

The proposed high-speed railway will link Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea coast and the new Alamein city on the Mediterranean coast.

The first monorail package is 35km long and will link Giza to 6^th of October city.

The second monorail package will extend 52 kilometres from Nasr City district in Cairo to the New Cairo Capital.

All projects are to be executed using a combined engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and financing model.

MEED earlier reported that the Egyptian authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Canada’s Bombardier to undertake a study for the establishment of a monorail from Nasr City to New Cairo and the new administrative capital.

A Bombardier-led consortium as well as another team, led by China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), have also previously submitted an offer for the monorail system that will link Giza with 6^th October City.

It is unclear how the latest tendering round will impact the ongoing negotiations with both teams.

Egypt plans to build and modernise thousands of kilometres of rail track in line with strengthening its logistics sector and enabling safer and more efficient public transport system for its citizens.