Tue, 11 September 2012

MUSCAT -- A much-stalled tender for the appointment of an international consultant to design the Sultanate's multibillion dollar National Railway Project now remains effectively scrapped, a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Transport and Communications revealed here yesterday. Instead, the Ministry plans to shortly float a fresh tender for the appointment of a consultant to undertake the 'preliminary design' of the 1,061-kilometre rail network. This will be followed by two other tenders -- one for 'Detailed Design and Build', and the other for 'Project Management Consultancy and Supervision Services'.

The revelations came during a presentation on the keenly watched national rail project at the opening session of the Oman Transport Infrastructure Summit organised by Global Exhibitions & Conferences (GEC). Salim bin Said al Amri, Deputy Director General of Roads and Head of the Railway Team at the Ministry, said the design package will be retendered in accordance with the directives of the Tender Board. Responding to a query from a member of the audience seeking clarity on the current status of the prequalification offers submitted last year, the official said: "We evaluated those offers and sent them back to the Tender Board with our comments.

At the same time, we also requested the services of a neutral consultant to evaluate the tenders, the results of which were submitted to the Tender Board. However, the Tender Board asked us to retender the project because there are some risks in the tender, as well as concerns that some consultants did not follow proper tendering procedures. So it has now been decided to have a preliminary design, followed by a Design & Build phase. Documents for the preliminary design tender will be sent to the Tender Board this month, and we hope it will be floated within the next two months.

For this tender, we prefer to go to the same consortiums that had been prequalified for the design package." Asked for the Ministry's timeframe for the implementation of the rail project, the official remarked: "We are aiming for the completion of the design by end of 2014, and the construction phase to start in the third quarter of 2014. We hope to complete Phase 1 (roughly 1,061 kilometres) by end 2018 in line with a target set by the GCC states in this regard." Significantly, the disclosures will help dispel lingering suspicions about the authorities' intent to go ahead with the rail project at the current juncture -- reservations fuelled by the inordinate delay in the evaluation of offers for the selection of consultants for the design and project management packages.

A high-profile roster of international design engineering heavyweights has been competing for the all-important Design & Supervision contract. The line-up is as follows: Partnership of AECOM (US), Cowi & Partners, DBI (Germany); (ii) Consortium Systra (France), Parsons (US) and Atkins (UK); (iii) Group headed by Mott MacDonald (UK), Italferr SpA (Italy) and WorleyParsons (Australia); (iv) Partnership of eight Korean firms led by Korea Rail; and (v) Consortium led by Prointec Group (Spain) and including Spanish-based engineering entities Idom, Eurostudies and ALG. The selected Preliminary Design Consultant, Al Amri said, will undertake, among other things, a review of previous studies on the rail project.

Also as part of the brief, the consultant will provide preliminary designs of the requisite rail infrastructure and systems, and also outline the specifications for rolling stock performance.Separately, another consultant is also assisting the Ministry in studying alternatives for traction power for the national rail system. An earlier decision to run the rail network on electricity -- as opposed to the GCC-wide choice of diesel-based locomotion -- is currently under review, he said. "We are now studying the best solutions for interoperability with the GCC network. When we have the final recommendations, we shall take a decision then.

But it is important to have interoperability with the GCC, as this project is part of a GCC-wide initiative." Phase 1 of Oman's National Railway Project consists of four segments: from Sohar Port to Muscat (comprising a 242km link from Sohar Port to Al Misfah (Muscat), an 8km spur line to Sohar Railway Yard, and a 20km link from Al Misfah to Muscat Central Station; (ii) from Muscat to Duqm Port (comprising a 486km line from Al Misfah to Duqm, and an 84km link from Sinaw to Ibra; (iii) from Sohar to the UAE border via Al Ain (comprising a 136km line from Sohar to Al Ain and a 27km spur to Buraimi; and (iv) from Sohar Port to Khatmat Malaha (58km) on the UAE border.

The total length of this network is 1,061km. The double-track network, Al Amri said, will be designed for both passenger and freight transportation, although freight movement will be prioritised in the initial phases of the project. Major freight yards are planned at Barka, Al Misfah, Sohar, Duqm and Sunainah (Buraimi), while smaller yards will come up at Suwaiq, Sinaw, Buraimi and Khatmat Malaha. Also envisaged are nine major passenger stations at Sohar, Barka, Muscat, Izki, Sinaw, Duqm, Buraimi, Sinaina and Khatmat Malaha.

© Oman Daily Observer 2012