TWO of the groups behind Metronet, the failed London Tube firm, are in the frame for a £5 billion contract to run another key part of the capital’s transport infrastructure, the M25.

Balfour Beatty and Atkins are part of Connect Plus, one of three groups left in the race to widen and maintain a large stretch of the orbital motorway. Industry sources tip Connect Plus to win the deal, but a final announcement is not expected until later in the year.

The pair were among the five shareholders in Metronet, which went into administration last year. Last week it was revealed that the taxpayer would have to repay the £1.7 billion in debts it left behind.

A parliamentary inquiry was highly critical of the Metronet structure, under which the shareholders – and companies owned by the shareholders – were responsible for major works.

The transport committee concluded: “The government should bear the Metronet debacle in mind if and when its parent companies – Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy, and Thames Water – next come to bid for publicly-funded work.”

MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, who chairs the committee, yesterday said if Atkins and Balfour Beatty did win the M25 contract: “I would certainly be asking some pointed questions.”

The M25 deal is the largest roads project up for grabs in the UK. The Highways Agency will award a single private finance initiative contract for the widening of 63 miles of the motorway from three to four lanes in each direction, and its maintenance for the next 30 years. The total value of the project is about £5 billion.

Three groups are in the running. Connect Plus (Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Egis Projects) is vying with Flow (a consortium led by Vinci, the French construction group) and a group comprising Amey, Laing O’Rourke and Ferrovial, the owner of airports group BAA.

The Highways Agency said yesterday: “The successful bidder will be chosen on the basis of which can provide the best level of service to the agency.”

Keith Clarke, Atkins’s chief executive, said: “We win work on merit and continue to do so.”

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