The Australia Capital Territory (ACT) Government has accepted final bids from the two shortlisted teams for the delivery of the light rail PPP project in Canberra.

The two shortlisted consortia will finally submit two bids for the project, one to detail the 12 km light rail track from Gungahlin to the City, which has already been submitted, and the other to detail the 3.2 km extension to Russell, which is scheduled to be submitted by early October. ATC aims to achieve commercial closure for the project with the preferred bidder by early 2016.

The two consortia that have bid for the project are the following:

• Canberra Metro: Pacific Partnerships, Mitsubishi Corporation, Aberdeen Infrastructure Investments Limited, John Holland, DB International, Leighton Contractors, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

• Activate: Downer EDI, Plenary Group Private Limited, Bombardier Transportation Australia, Keolis Downer, Keolis SA, Parsons Brinckerhoff Australia, Aurecon Australasia, Cox Architecture, Itochu Australia and Partners Group AG.

The project will be developed on a build, own and operate (BOO) basis. The contract will have a period of 20 years.

The total project investment is estimated at approximately A$783 million (US$555 million), which includes a nominal A$610 million plus A$173 million contingency.

Capital Metro, the agency behind the project, appointed in mid June 2014 Clayton Utz to provide specialist legal advice for the project. Previously in May 2014 we reported that Ernst and Young worked on the business case. Additionally, an Arup-led consortium has worked on the project's technical elements.

We have recently reported on several rail PPP projects globally:

• Finch West Light Rail Transit - Canada
• Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 4 and LRT Line 6 - Philippines
• North-South Commuter Railway (South Line) - Philippines
• Hudson River Rail Tunnel project - USA
• Port area light rail PPP in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil