Electra Infrastructure will build the first section of the southern railway route connecting Modi'in and Rishon Lezion along Road 431. Electra Ltd. (TASE: ELTR), which competed against Danya Cebus in the tender, will perform infrastructure work on the NIS 3.2 billion project for NIS 385 million. Electra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of the Electra group, is managed by president and CEO Itamar Deutscher.
The project is part of a broader plan, which includes laying a railway line along Road 531 connecting Ra'anana and Herzliya. When the plan is completed in 2025, it will mark the completion of a railway ring around the greater Tel Aviv area.
The project will be one of the most difficult railway projects in engineering and logistics to be constructed in the coming years. The 30-kilometers track will contain a 3.5-kilometer bridge from Rishonim Interchange to Kiryat Rishon Interchange and three tunnels under Road 20 (Ayalon Highway) underneath the Moshe Dayan railway station. Difficulties with the section inside Road 431 are also anticipated, because of the traffic congestion and large amount of infrastructure there.
The track will be connected to the high-speed line to Jerusalem in a area of Anava Interchange, and will facilitate a direct connection between Jerusalem and Rishon Lezion and the communities south of the greater Tel Aviv area. Travel time from Rishon Lezion to Jerusalem will be 45 minutes (compared with 80 minutes at present). Travel time between the Moshe Dayan railway station and Modi'in will be cut from one hour to half an hour. Electra's tender relates to the two-kilometer segment under Rishonim Interchange to Ramle South Interchange.
Israel Railways said that the segment of track to be carried out by Electra Infrastructure, led by the construction department in Israel Railways' development division, is the first of the 10 segments making up the project. The segment includes laying 5.5 kilometers of new track, two railway bridges, and a tunnel.
Israel Railways added that Project 431 would be the southern section of a 100-kilometer railway ring surrounding the greater Tel Aviv area. The northern section will be the Hasharon Railway built on the route of Road 531 by the National Transport Infrastructure Company (Netivei Israel), the first part of which was inaugurated in July 2018 with the opening of two railway stations in Ra'anana.
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