SINGAPORE - Nine bids were received for the tender for the Seletar bus package, which closed on Thursday (Oct 27) at noon.

Bids were received from existing players SBS Transit and SMRT Buses, as well as Tower Transit and Go-Ahead, which won the earlier Bulim and Loyang tenders respectively.

A bid was also received from Woodlands Transport, a private bus company here.

Also submitting bids were National Express from Britain and Australia's Busways as well as two consortiums: Kumho Buslines-Tian San Shipping and Travel GSH-Jiaoyun Group.

Travel GSH and Tian San are local firms, while Kumho is from South Korea and Jiaoyun from China.

The winning firm will operate the upcoming Seletar bus depot, scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2017 and have 26 bus routes operating from the Ang Mo Kio, Yio Chu Kang and Yishun interchanges.

The tender, the third under the government bus contracting model, opened in June.

Under the government contracting model, buses and infrastructure are owned by the Government, while the operator is in charge of running routes and meeting specified service standards.

The Seletar bus package is expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2017.