The National Centre for Privatisation (NCP), Saudi Arabia’s public-private partnership (PPP) procurement entity, expects to award the contract for the advisory roles for the public transport schemes in Mecca, Jeddah, Medina and Dammam before the end of November.

NCP received bids for the technical, legal and financial services advisory roles on 12 October.

The bids were initially expected on 1 October but the submission date was moved to 12 October in response to requests for an extension from prequalified bidders.

MEED understands the bid evaluation including clarifications could take up to one month.

The roles sought are expected to treat each of the four public transport projects, which all have a metro component, individually.

The contract duration is for up to six years.

The NCP says it will hire three other consultants namely commercial, environmental and insurance advisers for the project.

MEED understands the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MOEP), the government ministry overseeing NCP, commissioned a study in 2016 with respect to the review and optimisation of the planned public transport systems across the four cities.

Prior to this, the four schemes were developed independently by the concerned authorities at the municipal level.

It is understood that NCP is likely to procure one of the four schemes first, and will then proceed with the next one depending on the outcome of the first project.

Of the four public transport schemes, the metro component of the Mecca Public Transport Programme was the most advanced.

The Mecca Metro was initially planned as a PPP with UK-based consultancy EY and law firm Ashurst and the US’ Parsons Brinckerhoff appointed as transaction advisers for the project in March 2011. A feasibility study for the metro was prepared by a joint venture of France’s Systra and the US-based Aecom, who were appointed as consultants in April 2012. However, the plans to develop the Mecca Metro on a PPP basis were dropped after the government decided to fund the scheme directly in 2013.

Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts worth an estimated $8bn for the civil works, rolling stock and systems of the metro’s lines B and C were expected to be awarded in late 2015 but were put on hold.

The privatisation of the kingdom’s mainline rail networks is also under way. The Public Transport Authority (PTA) expects to tender the consultancy packages for four mainline rail and logistics schemes, whose budgets are estimated at roughly $20bn, in mid-2018.