Kuwait’s Public Authority for Roads & Land Transport (Part) plans to appoint a consultant by the third quarter of this year to draft tender documents for the much-delayed Kuwait National Rail Road scheme.

According to Part board member Mohammad Saud al-Hadbah, the first phase of the rail road project,  from the Saudi border to central Kuwait City, will be procured as a public-private partnership (PPP) project, with the Kuwait Authority for Private Partnerships (Kapp) managing the procurement and implementation process.

The civil works package could be awarded to the selected consortium, comprising developers, contractors and financiers as early as next year, while the signalling, track and systems package will be tendered later, according to Al-Hadbah.

The first phase of the railway, which will have a passenger and cargo component, has an estimated budget of KD900m ($2.9bn) and is expected to become operational by 2023.

Consistent with the earlier plan and based on the structure supported by the country’s procurement law, a project company will be formed by the selected consortium, which will own between 26 and 44 per cent of the company, with the remaining shares to be floated in an initial public offering (IPO).

The Kuwait government or public sector companies can then purchase shares equivalent to a minimum of 6 per cent and maximum of 24 per cent of the project company, Al-Hadbah said.

The first phase of the railway will extend 265 kilometres from the Saudi border to Kuwait City all the way to the under construction Boubiyan Port. It is broken down into five segments.

A planned second phase will extend the railway by 43 kilometres to the Iraqi border.