NIS 65b Metro tenders underway

the subway Today, tenders worth at least 65 billion shekels will begin. The phase published today is the pre-qualification phase for digging 150 kilometers of double tunnels under the supervision of 24 local authorities in Gush Dan.

The companies and consortia that pass the pre-qualification stage will become part of the group of contractors for the first phase of the project, which consists of 78 kilometers of tunnels and 59 underground stations.

Next year, construction bids will be published, and bids will be invited for eleven pieces of work. Every union accepted into the pool will be able to submit its bids.

The first round of tenders will focus on the inner loop sections of the three metro lines, which will form a wide communications network and will bring the main economic benefit to 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 pieces, and the works will employ more than 16,000 experts and workers, most of whom will come from abroad.

The pre-qualification process aims to identify Israeli and international companies “with proven experience in digging and building tunnels and metro stations, with a view to their participation in the planning and implementation of Phase A of the metro project. The companies will be able to compete in the process independently as individual companies or merge into consortia of up to three partners each.”

As Globes previously reported, because of the war and its impact on the willingness of international companies to work in Israel, NTA has devised a “permeable” bidding process where, within a year, additional consortia will be able to bid to join the contractor pool, but first preference will be given to those companies that enter the process now.

Last week, a delegation headed by Ben Meir returned to Israel from a visit to South Korea where an effort was made to attract companies that have not yet operated in Israel to participate in the tenders. A previous NTA delegation visited India. The attempt to open the tender to new companies in Israel stems from the realization that Israeli infrastructure companies do not have the capacity to handle the huge scale of the work, while there is no clear guidance on involving Chinese companies in light of the diplomatic tension over the issue, and the coldness of European companies towards Israel.

Besides the visits by NTA delegations, the timing of the tender process also stems from the hope that with the end of the war, companies that had previously hesitated to come to work in Israel due to political pressures will now be willing to do so, taking advantage of the developed market that is moving, because this is an unusually large project even by international standards.

In total, the metro will include 109 underground stations, and passengers are expected to make 600 million trips annually, rising to 800 million once it is connected to the light rail network. NTA confirms that work has already begun at the Rishonim warehouse on the M1 line, the Segula warehouse in Petah Tikva, the Golda Meir warehouse in Holon on the M2 line, and the Yigal Alon warehouse in Or Yehuda on the M3 line.

“Combined with Gush Dan’s transportation solution, the metro will be an economic engine creating thousands of jobs that will encourage urban renewal of residential areas and businesses along its length. According to an economic study, the metro will save the economy more than NIS 34 billion annually,” NTA says.

The metro still faces major challenges. After postponements, the first phase is scheduled to open between 2037 and 2042, but this is still a very ambitious timeline. Last month, Uzi Ishaki resigned as head of the National Metro Authority after just five months. The authority is a government body that aims to remove government and other impediments so that NTA can carry out work quickly and efficiently.

Then there is sourcing the cement, manufacturing the concrete slabs that will line the tunnels, and disposing of huge amounts of soil and sand. Those in charge of the project will have to deal with all of these matters, not to mention politicians and local authorities, and the lack of coordination between the authorities responsible for the country’s infrastructure.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 10, 2025.

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