Six international consortiums have been shortlisted to bid for Line 1 of the Bogotá Metro. The project, which is being procured as a public-private partnership, involves building a 24km railway from the Portal of the Americas in the south of the city to Caracas Avenue in the north.
The six groups are:
- Consorcio Metro de Bogotá FCC (Spain) and Carso Infraestructura y Construcción (Mexico)
- APCA Metro Capital Siemens (Germany) and Controladora de Operaciones de Infraestructura (Mexico), Strukton (Netherlands)
- Consorcio Sunrise Hitachi (Japan), Acciona (Spain), Salini Impregilo (Italy)
- APCA Transmimetro China Harbour Engineering
- Consorcio Linea 1 CCR Group, Camargo Correa (Brazil), Construtora Andrade Gutierrez (Brazil), OHL Group (Spain)
- Union Metro Capital Sacyr Group (Spain), Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Spain), Hyundai Motor Group (South Korea)
A seventh bidder, China Railway Group, expressed an interest in bidding for the scheme by the 25 February deadline, but failed to comply with tender’s requirements – a decision that it may challenge.
The bidders now have four weeks to discuss the details of the project with the client, Metro de Bogotá. They will then present their proposals in August, with a preferred bidder to be chosen between September and October.
The elevated line will be the first in Bogotá, a city of some 8 million people that at present relies on a bus rapid transit network, which opened in 2000.
The idea for a metro was first proposed in 1967. This latest version is expected to cost around $4.3bn, with $480m of that coming from a loan from the European Investment Bank.
The winning consortium will design, build and partially fund the line, as well as providing the rolling stock. It will then operate the system for 20 years.
Image: Bogotá depends on its bendy buses for mass transit (Felipe Restrepo Acosta/CC BY-SA 3.0)
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