ALGIERIA INVITES BIDS WORTH $US1.5BN
Posted on 08 May 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Algieria is inviting bids for a $US1.5bn passenger and freight rail project, and launching a study for a critical $US1bn oil-export railway in the south of the country. Interested concerns have until the end of June to bid for the High Plateau railway that will run from east to west across country, parallel with the Mediterranean coast.
The work is split into four packages comprising 630km of new standard gauge, single track railway, with lines running from Moulay Slissen to Tiaret, from Tissemsilt to Boughezoul, from Relizane to Tissemsilt via Tiaret, and from Boughezoul to M’Sila. The client is L’Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Realisation des Investissements Ferroviaires (Anesrif), the rail agency of the Algerian transport ministry.
Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and Obermeyer Engineering Consulting, together with the Spanish group Sener, completed a study in December 2008. In late May, the agency intends to launch a feasibility study into a proposed $US1bn Boucle du Sud freight railway, running from Hassi Messaoud via Ouargia, Ghardaia and Laghouat to Djelfa (800km). The line will link key oil and gas facilities in the centre of the country, and connect to existing lines running to the coast.
Anesrif intends to retender the $US794m project to electrify Algeria’s existing east-west rail line, which runs close to the coast, parallel to the planned route for the High Plateau project. Two packages cover several hundred kilometres of track. The eastern package includes the lines from Annaba to Ramdane Djamel and on to Skikda, while the western package includes the track between Oran and Arzew.
The contract was originally tendered in September 2008, when a UK/French team of Balfour Beatty and Cegelec, and a Spanish consortium of Elecnor, Cobra, Semi and Electren, submitted proposals. Anesrif was not satisfied that either team had sufficient local experience to carry out the work.
However, the agency has awarded a €300m contract to electrify 400km of track in the west of Algeria to France’s Thales. The company gained the project in competition with six other foreign bidders.
Algeria’s 4,000km rail network suffered years of underinvestment, notably during and after the civil war in the 1990s. The government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has committed itself to overhauling the national transport infrastructure, to support the country’s vital oil and gas facilities. It is expected that tenders for
signalling and telecoms projects will be issued in the near future.
The first phase of the new metro under construction in the capital city of Algiers is to open in September 2009. Final rolling stock tests are currently in progress.
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