Three firms have emerged as frontrunners for the contracts to operate and maintain (O&M) Riyadh Metro’s six lines.

The three firms are understood to include:

• RATP Dev (France)
• Keolis (France)
• Ansaldo / Hitachi (Italy / Japan)

Project owner Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) has forwarded the results of the evaluation process in July to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, whose final approval is required before the contracts are awarded.

MEED has previously reported that ADA is likely to select two or three firms to operate and maintain Riyadh Metro’s six lines.

ADA received the initial round of submissions for the contracts in December last year. Final submissions were received in May.

On 7 August, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, acting Riyadh governor and vice-chairman of the Higher Committee for the implementation of the King Abdul Aziz Project for Public Transport in Riyadh, said that 57 per cent of construction works on the Riyadh Metro had been completed.

Three Riyadh Metro packages, collectively worth $23bn, were awarded to separate consortiums in 2013, with 2018 set as the target completion date for all lines at the time. A 12-month delay has been anticipated, with 2019 set as the new target completion date.

The completed metro network will be 176.5 kilometres long (7.8km as a common section for Line 4 and Line 6), with underground, elevated and at-grade sections. It will have a total of 85 stations and 25 park-and-ride locations.

Coincidentally, RATP Dev and Keolis formed a joint venture to bid for the contract to operate and maintain the first phase of Qatar’s Doha Metro and Lusail tramway, which is also expected to be awarded soon. The other bidders for the Doha schemes are UK’s Serco, France’s Transdev and a team of UK’s Arriva and Germany’s DB International.