Seven companies have purchased tender documents for the project's fifth and final package rolling stock for which bids are now due to be submitted on 1 July. Japan's Sumitomo Corporation was the latest firm to purchase the documents. Sumitomo's participation brings to three the number of Japanese companies bidding for package five, the others being Marubeni Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation. The other companies that have purchased bid documents are: France's Alstom; China International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC); Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) of Spain; and Germany's Siemens.

NAT has invited bids by 20 July for the consultancy contract to provide supervision and co-ordination services during the project's start-up phase. Of the 11 prequalifiers, five have purchased tender documents. They are: Systra, Spain's Entrensa, Japan's Pacific Consultants International and Louis Berger and Parsons Brinckerhoff, both of the US.

NAT expects to complete in June evaluation of technical bids for four of the five main packages covering civil works, electro-mechanical installations, signalling and track laying. A total of 13 companies submitted technical bids for the four packages in March (MEED 24:3:06).