Saudi Arabia’s National Centre for Privatisation (NCP) has responded to clarification questions from firms that have expressed an interest in bidding for the contracts to provide technical, legal and financial advisory services for the public transport systems in Mecca, Jeddah, Medina and Dammam, which will now be procured using a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

MEED understands that the NCP expects to appoint one firm for each of the three roles by the end October.

It is unclear if the NCP has agreed to move the deadline for the submission of bids, which are expected on 1 October.

The roles sought are expected to treat each of the four public transport projects individually.

The contract duration is for up to six years with 1 November set as commencement date.

“It is likely that NCP will proceed by procuring one of the four schemes first …depending on the outcome of the first project it will then move on to the other three,” a source familiar with the transaction tells MEED.

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

It now appears that the Ministry of Economy and Planning 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.

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 UK’s 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 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 pending a nationwide review of projects.

The three other public transport schemes were originally designed to be financed by the government. Implementing agencies or municipal governments individually appointed technical or project management consultants for each of these projects between 2011 and 2013. However, lower oil revenues since 2015 forced the government to review all major projects in the kingdom causing these projects to be temporarily put on hold.