In Dubai, the final bid deadline for the light rail project has been postponed following a request for an extension by one of the bidders.

The date for receipt of the final commercial bid package has been moved back by one month from January to the end of February 2005. Five consortia are preparing bids for the scheme (T&TI, September 2004, p7) that has also seen the amount of tunnelled sections being reduced to 11.5km from 18km on cost grounds.

The responsibility for the final design rests with the successful contractor and designer, but the tunnels are expected to be a single bore, twin track tunnel in the region of 9.6m in diameter. With tunnelled depths likely to be 25-30m below the surface and ground conditions in Dubai characterised as sand with a high water table, a TBM solution is thought to be the most likely.

In late September last year, as bidding entered the final phases, the lead consultant, Systra from France, released a copy of the finalised project document. Changes to the design saw the project cost reduce from US$3.9bn to US$3.4bn.

A project source told T&TI that the tunnelling works were reduced as there was no reason to go underground and this led to substantial savings. He confirmed that the route remained broadly similar however and the overall network would remain unchanged.

As the bid process has progressed, the funding requirements have become clearer. Presently, the bidding consortia are expected to attach a financing solution with their offers to cover 90% of the project’s cost, the Dubai municipality will invest the 10% balance. The project had been hoped to have a staged opening of the entire Green Line and sections of the Red Line. The source told T&TI that project phasing was still unclear pending funding issues. With the scheme planned to generate more than US$136M in revenue annually, finalising the plans for staging are likely to be critical to funding assurances.

The current plan is to award the contract by May this year, with revenue operation beginning by the summer of 2009.

Related Files
Route of the Red and Green lines of the Dubai light rail project that features 11.5km of tunnels