A new lowest bidder has emerged to build Dubai Metro’s Blue Line after the competing consortiums submitted revised offers earlier this week, business website MEED reports.

The procurement for the work is taking the form of a Dutch auction, with the teams encouraged to revise their plans and lower their prices.

So far, five sets of bids have been entered. The first offers were made in October, and this was followed by “revisions” on 7 November, 14 November, 21 November and 3 December.

After the latest set of revised bids were entered, the lowest offer came from Turkey’s Limak and Mapa Group, together with the Hong Kong office of China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation.

They put the cost of the job at $5.6bn.

The second-lowest bid, $5.9bn, came from China State Construction Engineering Corporation and France’s Alstom.

Third was $5.91bn offered by India’s Larsen & Toubro in association with the Power Construction Corporation of China, Wade Adams and Hitachi.

First round of bidding

The first round of bidding concluded in October. At this, a team made up of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering, Arab Contractors, Binladin Contracting Group and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles put in the lowest offer, at $6bn.

The design-and-build contractor for the Blue Line will be responsible for all civil works, electromechanical works, rolling stock and rail systems. After completing the project, the contractor will assist with maintenance and operations for an initial three-year period.

The Blue Line will run for 30km and will have 14 stations.

It 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.