Sources close to the UAE’s $11bn federal railway project, being developed by Etihad Rail, say the predominantly Italian consortium is favourite to win the civil engineering deal for the first phase of the project.

The consortium led by Saipem and includes Tecnimont and India’s Dodsal Group, is said to be “the lowest bidder by far”, according to a source close to the group.

In July, Etihad Rail held meetings with six groups bidding for the civil engineering contract. The six groups gave presentations to Etihad Rail as part of their bid submissions. Etihad Rail said that the meetings did not mean the groups had been shortlisted.

Other bidders involved in the discussion in July included a consortium of Al-Jaber Group (local)/China Railway Construction Company (China); and the Saudi Binladin Group.

The civil engineering contract is the first major construction deal that will be awarded. The estimated AED2bn ($544m) civil engineering contract includes civil structures, systems, facilities and track work.

On 20 September, Etihad Rail said that it would award the civil engineering contract in “the next few weeks”. (MEED 20:9:11).

In April, a US group of Aecom and Parsons won the project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the first phase of the project after Etihad Rail cancelled the initial PMC contract in January.

The UK’s Atkins will carry out preliminary engineering work for the entire UAE railway after the contract was awarded to the US’ Parsons Brinckerhoff for stages one and two was cancelled in January.

The first phase of the railway runs from the port of Ruwais to the gas fields in Habshan and Shah in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region. This is known as stage zero. Aecom-Parsons will also be project manager for the next stages of development, which are stage one, the rail network in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and stage two, which will see the rail network extend to the Northern Emirates.

Etihad Rail declined to comment on the bids for the civil engineering deal.