The loan is structured in four main components: works, operating systems, rolling stock and management. When completed, the monorail will be 7.7km long and will connect Congonhas Airport with Morumbi on Line 9 of the Paulista Metropolitan Trains Company (CPTM) commuter rail network.
On the same day, São Paulo Metro received bids from three groups to supply 14 monorail trains and systems including signalling, fibre optic networks, platform screen doors, and maintenance vehicles for Line 17/Gold.
Signalling Consortium, comprising Molinari, Switzerland, and the Brazilian companies TTrans and Bom Sinal, submitted the lowest bid at Reais 1.042bn. The Chinese BYD Skyrail São Paulo group submitted the second-lowest bid at Reais 1.139bn, followed by the CQCT Golden Phoenix Monorail consortium, led by CRRC, China, with Chongqing Industrial Railway Transit Investment and Transvia Constructor, with a price of Reais 1.569bn.
The absence of better-known monorail manufacturers such as Bombardier, which is supplying trains and systems for monorail Line 15/Silver, and Hitachi was probably due to the fact that the project required adapting products to the standards of Scomi, Malaysia, which was originally supposed to supply the trains.
São Paulo Metro will now analyse the bids in order to select the winning tender.
The E&M component of the project was retendered after São Paulo Metro rescinded its contract with Integration Monorail Consortium (CMI) following delays to the project. The consortium members were fined Reais 88m and disqualified from bidding for new contracts with the state of São Paulo for a period of two years.
In September, São Paulo Metro announced that Constran Internacional Construções would take over responsibility for the civil works on Line 17/Gold.
“The authorisation of this loan proves that our government is committed to the resumption and delivery of priority works to citizens, including the Gold Line,” says Mr Alexandre Baldy, secretary of state from metropolitan transport with São Paulo state government.
