The bids have been entered for Dubai Metro’s Blue Line, which will add 30km and 14 stations to the emirate’s mass transit system.
According to business website Meed, the lowest offer came from a consortium made up of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering, Egypt’s Arab Contractors, Binladin Contracting Group of Dubai and Spanish train maker Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.
The group offered to build the line for $6bn, which is 6% less than the second lowest bid. This was entered by a team comprising Turkish contactors Limak and Mapa, together with China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation.
The third-ranked offer was submitted by a consortium made up of FCC of Spain, China State Construction Engineering and Alstom, which bid $6.6bn.
The second highest bid was from India’s Larsen & Toubro and Powerchina, together with local contractor Wade Adams and Hitachi. They priced the job at $7.4bn.
The highest offer by some distance was submitted by China Civil Engineering Construction, China Railway Construction, South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem and Siemens, with a price of $11.2bn.
The Blue Line has a bifurcated route running north to south through the city. If all goes to plan, it will start operating in 2029, moving as many as 200,000 passengers a day. Among the districts served will be Dubai Creek, Festival City, International City, Al Rashidiya, Al Warqa, Mirdif and urban areas such as Silicon Oasis and Academic City.
The line is part of a planned expansion of the metro, which is set to double its size over the next 15 years.
Plans for the Blue Line were first announced in November 2023 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. At that time, he estimated that the project would cost $4.9bn.
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