France's Alstom and Canada's SNC Lavalin have announced that they were accepted by the government of Bogotá to conduct the feasibility studies of a tramway project in the city.

The companies will deliver by March 2015 the studies for structuring the project as a public-private partnership (PPP). Transmilenio, Bogotá transport agency, will have six months to review the feasibility of the project and will then make a decision on whether to carry out a tender process.

The project will include the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the tramway project in Bogotá. The line is 21 kilometers long and has an estimated cost of 1.3 billion pesos (US$675 million).

We chose the tramway because it required much width less space than the other mass transport systems", said Juan Jorge Celis Neira, president of Alstom Colombia. "The idea is that it is multimode and complemented with a heavy metro."

The District may provide 20% of this mega-project especially invested in the purchase of surrounding land that collide with the project area.

Alstom was recently shortlisted for three other PPP tram projects:

• Liège tram PPP project (April 2014)
• Sydney light rail PPP project (February 2014)
• Maryland light rail P3 project (January 2014)