Spain’s Idom Ingenieria y Consultoria has offered the low bid, worth BD920,000 ($2.43m), for the consultancy contract to update Bahrain’s urban transit network.

Other firms that submitted an offer include:

• Egis International (France): $2.54m
• Aecom (US): $4.14m (option 1); $4.74m (option 2)
• Sener-Setec (Spain): $4.48m
• WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff (Canada): $5.43m
• Parsons Global Services (US): $5.56m

Several other consultancies that are understood to have submitted a technical offer were not included in the list of bid prices published by the Bahrain Tender Board on 1 September.

The US’ Aecom offered two pricing options for the contract. The tender board document did not specify the commercial offer, if any, made by France’s Systra.

Bahrain has one of the most congested cities in the GCC despite having a population of just 1.3 million. It has about 500,000 registered cars, which has been growing at an average of 11 per cent annually.

In response to these challenges, the government has announced three major rail projects. Two of these, the King Fahd Causeway Rail Link and the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, are aimed at improving transport links between the island and the kingdom’s immediate neighbours. The third, an ambitious light rail transit (LRT) and monorail network, is focused on improving transport links within the country.

Some progress is being made on the King Fahd Causeway and the LRT scheme, while the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway is still under review.