Fierce competition has developed for the first phase of the Bursa metro, for which the municipality is considering two close rebids. The client is understood to be keen to make a decision on the award before the local elections at the end of March (MEED 11:2:94).

Rebids, both about $290 million, were returned in a second round of tendering by a consortium of the local Guris with Italy's Ansaldo and Breda Costruzioni Ferroviari, and France's Sofretu; and a group of locals Bayindir and Yuksel with Germany's Siemens. The price compares with the original low bid of about $312 million returned by the Guris consortium. The devaluation of the lira since the January currency crisis has further complicated evaluation of bids in composite currencies, contractors say.

The 14.5-kilometre first-phase of the metro will run from the city's organised industrial zone via a central inter-city bus terminal at Sirameseler to the Sehrekusu district. It will have 14 stops and three large stations, to be served by 24 trains with three carriages each. Work will take about 27 months. The metro masterplan calls for five stages to be built over 20 years.