Eight of the 10 bidders vying for the second government bus contract have been shortlisted by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), reported The Straits Times.

The eventual winner of the tender, which was called in April, will operate 25 bus services in the Punggol and Pasir Ris area.

The shortlisted bidders for this Loyang package comprise three local companies, four foreign players and a Singapore-South Korea consortium. The Loyang bus tender is expected to be awarded in the fourth quarter of this year.

The winning firm or consortium will start operating the bus routes from the second half of next year. Of the 25 services, 22 are existing routes run by SBS Transit, with three new ones to be added. The first government bus contract, to run 26 routes in the western part of the island, was won by London-based Tower Transit with an offer of $556 million.

The LTA uses a two-envelope tender system, in which submissions are evaluated for quality and price, with more weight given to the quality proposal submitted by the tenderers.