Dubai Municipality has decided to delay the final bid submission deadline for its Dh12.5 billion light rail transit (LRT) project by one month, an official said.
"We have moved the date for the final commercial bid from January 31 to February 28, 2005. All other aspects of the tendering process remain the same," said Nasser Ahmad Saeed, general coordinator for the LRT project.
According to an earlier Dubai Municipality deadline, the final commercial bids were to have been submitted by January 31, 2005.
After evaluation, the final contract is expected to be awarded in May 2005, he said.
The first round of bids, which involved rail systems and signalling, were submitted to Dubai Municipality on November 1.
According to the latest set of instructions, the five consortiums selected by the Dubai Municipality to bid for the prestigious project must submit two more technical bids.
There are five prequalified bidding consortiums vying for the project. The first involves Bilfinger Berger (Germany, and the leader), Taisei (Japan), BeSix (Belgium), and Alstom (France).
The second involves Vinci (France), Hochtief (Germany), CCIC (UAE) and Ansaldo (Italy). The third is made up of Obayashi (Japan), Yapi Merkesi (Turkey) and Mitsubishi (Japan).
The fourth is called Metro One, which includes Odebrecht (Brazil), Arab-tec (UAE), and Bombardier (Canada).
The final consortium is made up of Bin Laden Group (Saudi Arabia), Diwidag (Germany) and Siemens (Germany).
Meanwhile, all the bidders are negotiating with leading local and international banks to form financial consortiums to finance the bids.
More than 15 local and international banks are involved in these talks.
Dubai Municipality will provide only 10 per cent of the project value to the winning consortium.
The rest will be financed by the financing wing of the winning consortium.
Gulf News
