Two bids for Gautrain tender

the gautrain project team is hard at work evaluating tender documents from two consortia that submitted their proposals to construct and operate a regional rapid rail link between johannesburg and pretoria.

the team has given itself 90 days to evaluate and decide which of the two pre-qualifying bidders, gauliwe and bombela, would win the contract.

the decision on the winner is likely to be made in the middle of january next year and construction will begin in the middle of next year.

the r7bn gautrain which will link johannesburg, sandton, pretoria and johannesburg international airport is the flagship project of blue iq, gauteng's investment programme.

the bidders submitted their final tender documents at the beginning of the month and the documents were 18m³, requiring a room to contain them. the consortia made their formal presentation to the project team at the end of last week.

bombela consortium's lead member is bombardier transportation, a major international rolling stock manufacturer. others include bouygues travoux publics, an international contractor, and three south african civil engineering companies.

gauliwe consortium consists of international rolling stock manufacturer alstom, spain's civil contractor dragados concesiones, and grinaker lta.

"the project team hopes to finish evaluating the tenders by the middle of january and make recommendations to the political committee," gautrain spokeswoman barbara jensen said.

the project team is headed by gauteng transport and public works department head jack van der merwe.

after a decision is made, the project team and the winning bidder will work on a plan to fund the project. "the province would like to be exposed to as little risk as possible," jensen said.