UAE’s Etihad Rail has extended the deadline for the submissions of bids for the project and contract management (PM/CM) and engineering design contracts for stage 2 of the Etihad railway network to the first week of April.

Submissions were initially expected on 20 March.

Consultancy firms understood to have been invited to bid for the contracts include:

• Aecom (UK)
• Arup (UK)
• Atkins (UK)
• CH2M (US)
• Egis (France)
• Jacobs Engineering (US)
• Parsons (US)
• Systra (France)
• WSP (Canada)

UAE Infrastructure Development Minister Abdulla Belhaif al-Nuaimi confirmed on 1 March that the government has restarted preparations for the next stage of the railway.

MEED earlier reported that Abu Dhabi had been re-engaging with stakeholders for the design and route alignment for the upcoming phases of the railway.

These include the second stage, for which procurement was suspended in January 2016.

Senior officials at the Abu Dhabi-based Federal Transport Authority (FTA) and Fujairah Municipality held a meeting last November to discuss the need for minor revisions to the current route alignment for stage 3, which will link the railway to Fujairah as well as Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah.