Saudi Railway Organisation (SRO) expects to award the contract for project management for several railway projects soon, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

Tendered last year, the PMO contract is understood to cover the following projects:

• Riyadh to Riyadh link (90km)
• Upgrade of Riyadh-Dammam railway
• Bridges
• Riyadh port upgrade

It is understood that two of these schemes are included in the railway privatisation programme initiated by the Public Transport Authority (PTA).

In February, the PTA received prequalification applications for the contract to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the kingdom’s mainline railway networks.

The scheme comprises the initial phase of privatising the kingdom’s railway sector.

According to the prequalification questionnaire, companies may ask to be prequalified for either one or multiple modules of the privatisation process.

The O&M services sought are split into three modules: infrastructure management, passenger operations and freight operations.