Consortium Wins Contract for Regional Fast Rail in Tunisia

A consortium consisting of Colas Rail, Siemens and Tunisian firm Somatra-Get has won a contract for Phase 1 of a Regional Fast Rail System in Tunis, Tunisia.

The project, worth 145m Euros will see the development of the first two lines, D and E. Award-winning European rail infrastructure services company Colas Rail, which is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of rail services, will be responsible for track, power supply, and remote surveillance and data collection.

A consortium including the European Investment Bank, the KFW German Bank, the French Development Agency AFD and the Tunisian Government are behind the project. The contract is anticipated to begin in 2014 and is scheduled to last for 46 months.

This will be the first project for Colas in Tunisia, although they also secured the contract for the extension of the Algiers metro at the end of 2012. Colas has 66,000 employees over 50 countries and 5 continents.

Tunisia is investing in rail infrastructure development, with long term plans to link up the rail network with Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, with a view to developing a modern, efficient transport network which would improve trade competitiveness nationally and across the region.