The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has held meetings with the five bidders competing for the contract to design and build the new metro link, Route 2020, connecting to the Expo 2020 site, to discuss project financing. Once the financing has been assessed a shortlist of bidders will be prepared and final negotiations will start. Bids were submitted by five groups on 6 March, namely: i) Nurol (Turkey) / Astaldi (Italy) / Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Spain) – AED6,998,874,922 (no alternative offer); ii) Mapa Gunal (Turkey) / China Railway Group (China) / CSR Corporation (China) – AED9,891,387,231 (no alternative offer); iii) Orascom Construction (Egypt) / Yapi Merkezi (Turkey) / GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Siemens (Germany) – AED10,019,449,463 (no alternative); iv) Acciona (Spain) / Gulermak (Turkey) / Alstom (France) – AED10,224,868,000 (base offer), AED9,975,831,483 (alternative); and v) Obayashi (Japan) / Wade Adams (local) / Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC; Athens-based) / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) – AED10,394,846,241 (base offer), AED10,341,846,241 (alternative offer). Abdul Mohsin Younus, CEO of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) had confirmed earlier this month that work on Route 2020 will begin in the next few months. (MEED)