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

They 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 two shortlisted consortia will have to submit two bids for the project, one to detail the Gungahlin to the City proposal and the other to detail the city to the Russell extension. The winning consortium is expected to be selected by early 2016.

Other two consortia were interested in the project, but finally they have not been shortlisted. They are: Connecting Canberra, composed by Capella Capital, TransDev Australia, Alstom Transport Australia, Acciona Infrastructure Australia, Acciona and Coleman Rail and CANGO composed by Macquarie Capital Group Limited, Obrascon Huarte Lain, SMRT International Private Limited, UGL Rail Services, and Siemens.

Phase I of the light rail line will extend from the city center Civic to Northbourne Avenue and further towards Gungahlin along Flemington Road. The 12 km light rail PPP project will be developed on a build, own and operate (BOO) basis. The contract period will be 20 years.

The total project investment is estimated at approximately A$783 million (US$597.7 million), which includes a nominal A$610 million plus A$173 million contingency.

Capital Metro appointed in mid June Clayton Utz to provide specialist legal advice for the project. In May we reported that Ernst and Young was working on the business case.

An Arup-led consortium, which includes six local suppliers, has worked on the project's technical elements including engineering, design, construction, operations, urban design, maintenance, network integration, sustainability, land development and safety management.

This PPP project will be the model for other future potential projects to develop the Canberra light rail network system.