OMAN: National railway project promoter Oman Rail is seeking an international rail operator with ‘extensive technical and commercial experience combined with local market knowledge’ to form a long-term partnership to operate and maintain the future 2 135 km network.
Oman Rail’s partner would initially support the development of skills and institutional capabilities in Oman, and provide advice on ‘developing the right innovative products’ to meet the needs of future customers in Oman and the wider GCC region. Once the first stage of the network is completed, the partner would be responsible for freight operations and network management.
Oman Rail envisages appointing a partner later this year, with operations scheduled to start in 2019.
Meanwhile, five of the 18 consortia which prequalified for the civil works contract for the 170 km Sohar – Al Buraymi Phase 1 Segment 1 of the network have passed to the second stage of the evaluation process. The first stage of evaluation looked at the technical offers, and the second stage which is now underway will review the financial aspects of the bids.
The bidders which passed to the second stage are:
- Salini Impregilo;
- China State Construction Engineering Corp with SK E&C;
- Saipem with Rizzani de Eccher and Doğuş İnşaat;
- Larsen & Toubro with FCC Construcción and local partner Khalid bin Ahmed & Sons;
- Porr Bau with Yüksel İnşaat, Sarooj Construction Co and Daewoo E&C.
