Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has received bids from five groups for the contract to design the national railway project.

The ministry received bids from five groups on 5 December. A consortium of the local Cowi & Partners with US-based Aecom and Germany’s DBI submitted the lowest price of RO44.4m ($115.5m) for the design deal.

UK-based Mott Mcdonald & Company submitted the second-lowest price of RO64.5m. The local office of France’s Systra submitted the third-lowest bid of RO75.6m. Spain’s Prointec Group and a South Korean joint venture of Korea Rail and Hyundai Engineering rounded off the bidders with bids of RO78.9m and RO88.3m respectively.

The contract also covers the supervision of construction. The client for the railway project is the sultanate’s Supreme Committee for Town Planning.

Oman’s railway scheme has suffered from slow progress, with companies having submitted prequalification documents for the design package in May 2010. However, the progress of the project was delayed earlier this year due to the protests in the sultanate. As part of reforms, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said sacked the National Economy minister Ahmed Macki, who was also the chairman of the railway executive board (MEED 8:8:11).

In May 2010, firms also submitted bids for a second contract, which covered project management consultancy. Companies that submitted prequalification documents for this contract have not heard any news on its progress from the client.

The Omani railway project is due to be constructed in three phases. The first phase will comprise a 230-kilometre line that runs from Sohar to Muscat. The second phase will be a 560km line running from Muscat to Duqm. Oman may then choose to extend the railway line to Salalah, which would involve building a 580km track.

France’s Systra and the local National Engineering Office carried out the feasibility study for the railway scheme.