SAUDI RAILWAYS Organisation announced on May 31 that four consortia had been qualified to bid for the BOT concession to build and operate the Saudi Landbridge railway between Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Jubail. Preliminary tender information was released to the consortia on June 10.

'The Supreme Economic Council, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, has approved the technical report regarding qualification of the four consortia', confirmed SRO President Khalid Alyahya, who chairs the project committee.

Nine consortia had presented their Statements of Qualification in September 2005, following a Project Day earlier last year (RG 3.05 p134). The four shortlisted groups each include civil engineering contractors and specialist railway suppliers as well as Saudi investment firms.

• Saudi Binladen Group has teamed up with Mitsui, Siemens and Ircon, and DB AG as the designated railway operator.
• Bouygues and Lazard are working with TSO of France, Samsung of South Korea and Transtech Engineering Corp of China, plus Halcrow, Ove Arup and Comazar.
• Mada Industrial & Commercial Investment Co is working with SNC-Lavalin, China Railway Material & Supplier Corp and Chinese Railways' 13th Construction Bureau, advised by Mott MacDonald and CPCS Transcom, with Rites responsible for rail operations and maintenance.
• PWC Logistics is backed by Kuwaiti interests, with Société Générale of France, Singapore's Overseas Port Management, Scott Wilson and Freightliner as operator.

According to Project Co-ordinator Mohannad F Al-Madhi, land for the entire route has already been acquired and, subject to approval by national and local authorities, this will be 'donated' to the winning concessionaire for a nominal fee.

• For a full listing of the qualified consortia, visit www.railwaygazette.com