Six ventures have been shortlisted to bid by 16 October in a retender for the $250 million first stage of the Bursa light rail mass transit system (LRMTS). The client is the city's municipality (MEED 26:4:96).

The six ventures of foreign and local companies are:

Germany's Siemens and Italy's Ansaldo Trasporti with Simko, Guris and Tuvasas the Angl/French GEC Alsthom with Sezai Turkes-Feyzi Akkaya Sweden's Adtranz with Yapi Merkezi France's Cegelec with Owag and Afken the UK's Balfour Beatty Construction with Garanti Koza Canada's SNC Lavalin International and Bombardier UTDC with Gama.

Bids for the project were cancelled in 1994 due to austerity cuts ordered by the treasury during the economic crisis of that year (MEED 15:7:94). At that time, the low bidder was a grouping of Italy's Ansaldo Trasporti and Breda Costruzione, France's Sofretu and the local Guris with a price of $252.99 million.

Bidders have been asked for 100 per cent credit funding offers, and treasury approval will be sought following the return of bids.

The municipality hopes to award a contract by the end of 1996 for a construction start in 1997. Completion will take about 900 days.

This time around, the municipality has extended the length of the first stage to 21 kilometres from 12.5 kilometres. It will run between the city's organised industrial zone and Kestel district, passing through the Mudanya street junction, Fomura, Hasim Iscan street, Tayyareci Ali Bey street and Gursu.

The contract will cover construction, manufacturing and erection works including operation and maintenance facilities, as well as the supply and manufacturing of cars and locomotives. Once the first stage is commissioned, about 36 trains will carry about 15000 passengers an hour.