The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation has announced the award of one civil construction contract and one systems contract for the West Rail Phase I worth a combined value of $92.8 million.

Costain-China Harbor Joint Venture won the contract for the construction of the West Rail Depot Buildings at a contract sum of $88.8 million. With the award of this contract, all civil construction contracts have been awarded, except the construction of West Rail Headquarters which will be awarded in the first quarter of this year.

Booz Allen & Hamilton (Australia) secured the contract for the design, manufacture, verification, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning and technical support for a complete computer-based integrated training system. The contract is worth $3.95 million. The interactive system will be used to train all operational staff for West Rail.

The construction of West Rail Phase I is packaged into 17 civil construction contracts and about 20 railway operation systems contracts. With the award of these contracts, a total of 16 civil construction contracts and 12 railway operation systems contracts have so far been awarded at a total value of $3.3 billion. The 30.5 km West Rail (Phase I), that connects West Kowloon and Tuen Mun via Yuen Long, started to be built in October 1998 and is due to be completed by the end of 2003.