NIS 65b Metro tenders underway

The Metro tenders, amounting to at least NIS 65 billion, get underway today. The stage published today is the pre-qualification stage for the excavation of 150 kilometers of double tunnels under 24 local authorities in Gush Dan.

Companies and consortia that pass the pre-qualification stage will become part of a pool of contractors for the first stage of the project, consisting of 78 kilometers of tunnels and 59 underground stations.

Next year, the construction tenders will be published, inviting bids for eleven parcels of work. Each consortium admitted to the pool will be able to bid.

The first round of tenders will focus on the sections of the inner ring of the three Metro lines, which will form a broad network of connections and yield the main economic benefit of the project.

According to NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit CEO Itamar Ben-Meir, the excavation work will require 20 TBMs (tunnel boring machines) to remove 40 million cubic meters of earth. Lining the tunnels will require 1.25 million segments, and the works will employ over 16,000 experts and workers, most of whom will come from overseas.

The pre-qualification process is intended to identify Israeli and international companies “with proven experience in excavation and construction of tunnels and underground stations, with a view to their participation in the planning and execution of stage A of the Metro project. Companies will be able to compete in the process independently as individual companies or to combine in consortia of up to three partners each.”

As previously reported by “Globes”, because of the war and its impact on the preparedness of international companies to work in Israel, NTA has devised a “permeable” tenders process, whereby, in a year’s time, additional consortia will be able to bid to join the pool of contractors, but first preference will be given to those companies that enter the process now.

Last week, a delegation led by Ben-Meir returned to Israel from a visit to South Korea where an effort was made to interest companies that have not worked in Israel up to now in bidding in the tenders. A previous NTA delegation visited India. The attempt to open up the tender to companies new to Israel stems from the understanding that the Israeli infrastructure companies do not have the capacity to cope with the huge scope of the works, while there is no clear directive on engaging Chinese companies in the light of the diplomatic tension over the matter, and the coolness towards Israel of European companies.

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Besides the visits of the NTA delegations, the timing of the tender process also arises from the hope that with the end of the war companies that previously hesitated to come to work in Israel because of political pressure will now be prepared to do so, and benefit from a developed market that is on the move, as this is an unusually large project even by international standards.

Altogether, the Metro will have 109 underground stations, and passengers are expected to make 600 million journeys on it annually, rising to 800 million once it is connected to the Light Rail network. NTA stresses that work has already started on the Rishonim depot on the M1 line, the Segula depot in Petah Tikva and the Golda Meir depot in Holon on the M2 line, and the Yigal Alon depot in Or Yehuda on the M3 line.

“Beyond the transport solution for Gush Dan, the Metro will be an economic engine creating thousands of jobs that will encourage urban renewal for residential areas and businesses along its length. According to an economic study, the Metro will save the economy over NIS 34 billion annually,” NTA says.

The Metro does still face significant challenges. After postponements, the first stage is due to open between 2037 and 2042, but this is still a very ambitious timetable. Last month, Uzi Itzhaki resigned as head of the National Metro Authority after only five months. The authority is a government body meant to remove government and other obstacles so that NTA can carry out the work swiftly and efficiently.

Then there is the sourcing of the cement, the manufacture of the concrete panels that will line the tunnels, and the disposal of huge quantities of earth and sand. The leaders of the project will have to deal with all these things, not to mention politicians, local authorities, and lack of coordination between entities responsible for infrastructure in the country.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 10, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.