Urban Development Institute invites bids from consultants for preliminary studies and technical assessments for the design of underground metro system. Nov 1998.   Senate approved plans to invite tenders end-1999 and government will contribute $71 million to project over five year period with a further $236.7 million to come from national development plan budget. Any further finance to come from local authorities. Line 1 to be 29.3 km long with 23 stations of which five in the city centre will be underground. Contract for geotechnical studies awarded to domestic consortium of PSI and AIM. Sept 1999.   The Colombian government is considering plans to reduce the cost of the Bogota metro from $3.04 billion to $2.7 billion. Consultants have proposed reducing the concession from 33 to 25 years, reducing construction time for Line 1 from seven to five years, and separating financing of construction and operation. February 2000.  Line 1 will be built in two stages, and should be completed by 2010. Decision to go ahead expected by end-February, 2000. The first stage will probably comprise 21.7 km elevated track, 1 km at grade, and 6.6 km underground. It will have 23 stations, including five underground. The concession could be awarded in November, enabling construction to start early next year. February 2000.A total of 56 national and foreign companies have expressed interest in the conceptual design for Bogota's mass transit metro network and the technical, legal and financial scope of the first metro line. Among these, 35 are joint ventures from various countries. The second phase of the process is the evaluation of the information sent by the candidates to then establish a shortlist in accordance with the requirements of the World Bank. Then, the prequalified candidates will be invited to prepare and submit their bids. To know the companies who expressed interest, visit www.transitobogota.gov.co/admin/contenido/documentos/FirmasProyec-metro_10_16_42.pdfThe Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is ready to lend half of the USD2.5 billion required to build the subway train in the Colombian capital. Currently, the IDB is financing prefeasibility studies to determine where the subway should run, whether it would be underground and how to interconnect it with the existing bus rapid transit system Transmilenio and the existing railways linking Bogota with surrounding towns. Over the next four years, the IDB will invest USD40 million to carry out legal, financial and environmental studies. The project most likely will be financed by several multilateral lenders and private loans. 19/08.Five engineering joint ventures, with Colombian partners, and one fully Spanish candidate have been shortlisted among the 56 candidates who participated in the bidding process for the conceptual design of the first metro line of Bogota. The successful joint venture will have to determine the alignment of the first line and its costs along with the technical, legal and financial scope of the system. The selected bidders are Halcrow with Guzmí¡n y Escobar Asociados (UK-Colombia); ILF with Hamburg-Consult, Urbanismo y Sistemas de Transporte, Ernst & Young, Muí±oz & Tamayo and B & C (Austria-Germany-Mexico-UK-Colombia); Ineco with Metro de Madrid (Spain); Sener with TMB, ALG, Incoplan, Santander Investment y Garrigues (Spain-Colombia); Pöyry Infra with Corficolombiana, Posse Herrera & Ruiz, Merryll Linch Pierce Fenner and Cal y Mayor Asociados (Mexico-Argentina-Colombia), and Steer Davies & Gleave with Akiris de Colombia, Citivalores, Baker & Mackensie Colombia and Figueredo Ferraz (Brazil-UK-Colombia). 24/08.A total of 23 national and international bidders expressed interest for participating in the technical, legal, administrative and financial supervision for the conceptual design contract for the first line, including the scaling as well as the technical, legal and financial scope of the project. See the list of the 23 candidates atwww.transitobogota.gov.co/admin/contenido/documentos/FirmIntervent-Mtro_17_13_34.pdf 24/08.