Morocco’s Casablanca Transports has moved the contract award date for the rolling stock package for Casa Tramway’s lines 3 and 4 to June, according to a source familiar with the project.

“We received very good proposals and we are still carefully evaluating each [of them],” a company spokesperson tells MEED.

Casa Transports received the bids for the rolling stock contract in July last year.

Companies that have submitted an offer are:

• Alstom Transport (France)
• Bombardier Cas (Canada)
• CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive (China)
• Skoda Transportation (Czech Republic)

The contract was initially scheduled to be awarded to a selected bidder in December last year, a deadline which was then moved to February.

Preparatory works, which include underground networks, for the two lines began in April last year and are expected to be completed in October, around the same time Casa Transports expects to issue the tender for the main civil works package for both lines.

In December last year, a team led by French consultancy Egis won the MD300m ($31.8m) project management services contract for the scheme.

The other members of the team are local firms Novec and Atelier A1.

Novec was also awarded a smaller contract, worth MD1.55m, to undertake the environmental and social impact studies for the two lines.

The same group undertook the preliminary design studies for lines 3, 4 and 5.

It is understood lines 3 and 4 will require an investment of MD8.4bn ($850m).

The Moroccan state as well as the regional and municipal governments of Casablanca will supply funding for 60 per cent of the project. Guaranteed loans will be utilised for the remaining 40 per cent of the budget.

The proposed Line 3 will link the Moulay Rachid industrial area, the Ben Msik College, Mabrouka, Ouled Zian and the Hassan II mosque all in Casablanca. Line 4 will extend from Derb Soltane to the Casa Port.

Line 2 of the Casa Tramway is under construction and is expected to be completed in October 2018. It will extend 17 kilometres and serve 22 stations. It will link Casablanca’s eastern Ain Sebaa district to Anoual Boulevard and serve nine boroughs of more than one million inhabitants.