Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) expects to award the contract for the emirate’s first transit-oriented development (TOD) soon.

Five companies and joint ventures have submitted an offer for the project, comprising mostly local developers, AbdulMohsin Ibrahim Younes, CEO of rail at the RTA, told MEED on the sidelines of MEED’s Mena Rail and Integrated Transport Summit in Dubai on 8 November.

Younes, however, declined to disclose any target date for the contract award. “It is a public-private partnership [PPP] project, and as you may be aware, negotiations for this type of project takes time,” he said.

The Dubai Union Oasis mixed-use development is a flagship PPP and TOD scheme launched by the RTA. It is to be located above the underground station where the Dubai Metro’s Red and Green lines meet.

The project is being procured under the auspices of the emirate’s new PPP law, approved in November 2015, and it is also the first TOD project launched in the region.

The prequalification of contractors for the project was completed in February, following several extensions to the original deadline.

Prior to the final prequalification deadline, the RTA announced integrating a minimum revenue guarantee to the financial structure of the Union Oasis project to relieve the selected developer of the burden of paying a fixed base payment against investing in the scheme and make it more attractive to investors and developers