Oman Rail has received commercial bids for the first three major construction contracts on the country’s national railway.

The sultanate’s rail company received commercial submissions from 11 consortiums on 1 March, having received technical bids on 18 January. A total of 18 consortiums had been prequalified to bid on the three packages. The bid deadline was delayed from December 2014 after the bidders requested more time to prepare complex designs on difficult terrain.

The 11 groups which submitted bids, with lead developers first, are:

• Porr Bau (Austria)/Yuksel Insaat (Turkey)/ Sarooj Construction Company (local)/Daewoo (South Korea)
• Saipem(Italy)/Rizzani de Eccher (Italy)/Dogus Insaat (Turkey)
• Ircon International (India)/Hani Archirodon (local)/Tata Projects (India)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)/FCC Construction (Spain)/Khalid Bin Ahmed & Sons (local)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)/SK E&C (South Korea)
• Astaldi (Italy)/Oman National Engineering & Investment Co (local)/Yapi Merkezi (Turkey)/Corsan-Corviam Construccion (Spain)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/Hasan Juma Backer (local)/Assignia Infraestructuras (Spain)/Maire Tecnimont Civil Construction (Italy)
• China Railway Group (China)/Mapa Insaat ve Ticaret (Turkey)
• Salini Impregilo (Italy)
• International Contractors Co (local)/China Railway Construction Corporation (China)/Mohammed Al-Kharafi & Sons (Kuwait)
• Societa Italiana Per Condotte D’Acqua (Italy)/Federici Stirling Batco(Lebanon)/SWS Engineering (Italy)/Itinera (Italy)

The three packages make up the first sector to be tendered; a 207-kilometre stretch from Sohar to Buraimi, of double-track, mixed freight and passenger non-electrified railway line.

Sector A stretches 127km, linking Sohar to the Oman/UAE boarder at Al-Buraimi and Al-Milahah. It includes two 2.94km-long tunnels, two 0.33km-long cut and cover sections, and 51 viaduct sections totalling 16.7km. For buildings, there are three stations, one depot, one maintenance facility, four freight terminals and three maintenance centres.

Sector B is 34km long, linking Sector A with Al-Buraimi station. It has two 1.86km-long tunnel sections and nine viaduct sections totalling 6km. For buildings, there are two stations, one maintenance facility, and two freight terminals.

Sector C links Sector A to the Port of Sohar over a distance of 38km. It will have eight viaduct sections totalling 3.1km, one depot and two freight terminals.

There will also be 8km of junctions linking Sector A to Sectors B and C with four viaduct sections totalling 1.9km.

A consortium led by Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas won the $149m project management contract for Sector A.