State-owned company Metro de Bogotá has selected six international consortia out of seven bidders that submitted their certifications and credentials on February 25 to proceed with the last phase of the tender for the development of a Bogotá Metro Line 1 project the under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme in Colombia. 

The six groups are:

• Consorcio Metro de Bogotá - Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), Carso Infraestructura y Construcción
• APCA METRO CAPITAL - Siemens, Controladora de Operaciones de Infraestructura, Strukton
• Consorcio Sunrise - Hitachi, AnsaldoBreda - Ansaldo STS, Acciona, Salini - Impregilo
• APCA TRANSMIMETRO - China Harbour Engineering and Construction Company (CHEC)
• Consorcio Linea 1 - CCR Group, Camargo Correa, Construtora Andrade Gutierrez, OHL Group - OHL Concesiones
• Union Metro Capital - Sacyr Group - Sacyr Concesiones, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles - CAF, Hyundai Motor Group

Of the seven groups that expressed interests in the project, only China Railway Group Limited has failed to demonstrate compliance with each and every one of the established requirements. However, based on the regulation, the company can demand changes and make observations to the report published by the Metro de Bogotá Company.

The six groups are given four weeks to present comments and suggestions to the texts of the specifications, the contract minutes and the appendices that contain the technical specifications of the project. After the final documents will be published, the six teams will have to structure and present their respective offers in August. The awarding of the contract is expected to be done between September and October to the group that presents the most economical offer. 

The winning consortium will have the responsibility to carry out its detailed designs, obtain partial financing of the project, execute the works, provide trains and equipment, and assume the operation and maintenance of the system during the first 20 years of commercial operation.

The district administration and the Metro Company have been rigorous in applying the necessary protocols to protect the process from any attempt at corruption. To atchieve greater transparency, the process relies on the integrity offices of the multilateral banks, which have sanctioning capacity of international scope. These policies allowed to discourage the participation of firms without sufficient technical or financial capacity, as well as those excluded by corrupt practices.

The Bogotá Metro Line 1 project involves the development of a 23.96 kilometers railway from the Portal of the Americas to Caracas Avenue, along Villavicencio Avenue, Primero de Mayo Avenue and Calle 1. Then, the road will go north on Caracas Avenue to 72nd Street. The subway portion will have 16 stations, 10 interchange with TransMilenio, every 1.4 kilometers on average. And from the second section the designs will be ready to reach Calle 127 along the Autopista Norte.