As known the selecting the appropriate contractor is paramount importance to the success of civil projects which is even more important to urban construction projects in various cities. Thus, this study highlights the main criteria for selecting contractors for construction projects in urban area as cases study for Tehran city, Iran. The 19 criteria were identified based on field investigations and expert opinions which classified into six groups. The analytic network process (ANP) was applied on criterias to responses prioritization. According to the results of the assessment, the affordability with 0.0660 and compliance rate with 0.0599 importance score are ranked criteria for responses prioritization and selecting the appropriate contractor in Tehran city. The executive ability factor with 0.0144 score received the lowest attention in ANP model. Manuscript profile