Following the news that 11 companies have submitted prequalification documents for Bahrain’s metro project; Colin Foreman, Deputy Editor at MEED, part of leading data and analytics company GlobalData, offers his view:

“International companies have demonstrated a clear interest in working on the Middle East’s upcoming rail projects. The estimated $500 million first phase of the Bahrain Metro will significantly add to the value of rail projects under construction in the *Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). According to MEED’s regional projects tracker, there are $8.3 billion of rail schemes under construction across the GCC’s six countries.

“A total of 11 companies have submitted prequalification documents for Bahrain’s metro project with Chinese players dominating the list of interested parties.
There are also other established players from Europe, the Far East and the Middle East who are competing to win the project as well.

“The Bahrain metro project is a trailblaser. Manama is pioneering the development of a public-private partnership (PPP) for rail infrastructure, and if successful it will be a world-first.

“The metro scheme is a key component of Bahrain’s $30 billion Strategic Projects Plan launched last year. For Bahrain the project will be transformational as it will stimulate economic growth during the construction phase, and once completed will help solve traffic congestion in the country, which will further encourage economic growth. GlobalData forecasts that Bahrain’s real GDP will grow by 3.29% in 2022 before cooling to 2.98% in 2023. Growth is then expected to remain at about 3% until 2029.”

* GCC: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates