A consultancy agreement worth nearly $9 million was signed last week between the King Fahd Causeway Authority and a consortium comprising of KPMG, AECOM and CMS to start work on the $3.5 billion second causeway project linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
A winning consortium, a mix of financial, technical, and legal companies, will work on developing the financing model, design of the mega project, as well as helping with the assessment and selection of the main developers.
The agreement, which was signed on the sidelines of the Future Investment Forum held in Riyadh recently, envisages a series of bridges and causeways, running parallel to the existing King Fahd Causeway. The new causeway, to be named the King Hamad Causeway after the Bahraini monarch, is expected to be about 25km long and will carry passenger trains, freight trains and vehicles to reduce the traffic on the King Fahd Causeway.
Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed said of the project, “We are pleased to announce the appointment of the main consultancy consortium to start developing all necessary requirements and the financial model required for the construction of the new King Hamad Causeway.
“This is a strategic project for us which will further enhance our logistics sector and the links between our two countries allowing us to realise common aspirations and reinforce the strong bilateral relations we have with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” The new King Hamad Causeway will be constructed based on a public-private partnership model.
