The state-owned "Lietuvos Geležinkeliai" is unable to complete the approximately 250 million announced a year and a half ago. of the tender for the electrification of the Vilnius-Klaipėda section worth EUR - the company has extended the deadline for submission of proposals for another week.
Bids from qualified bidders"Lithuanian railways" waited until July 16, but in the middle of July the deadline was extended until August 19, and then until September 27. Now the deadline for submission of proposals has been extended until October 4, Mantas Dubauskas, the representative of Lietuvos geležinkėliau, confirmed to BNS.
He did not comment on why the decision was made to postpone the deadline for submission of proposals again.
According to BNS, the tender was extended in mid-July as the railways feared that no offer might be received, as the potential contractors and the company did not agree on the draft of the future contract. At the end of July, one of its participants - the French infrastructure construction group Eurovia and its subsidiary Eurovia Lietuva - announced its withdrawal from the tender.
According to BNS, the Inabelec consortium, which includes Spain's Elecnor and Instalaciones Inabensa, France's Alstom, Kauno tiltai, together with the largest shareholder Poland's Trakcja PRKiI, Spain's Cobra Instalaciones Y Servicios, also participates in the tender. ", as well as the consortium represented by the Lithuanian company ATEF-Europe.
The Lithuanian engineering solutions company "Telekonta" also participated in the tender, but in April it was excluded from the procurement because it did not meet the qualification requirements. "Telekonta" appealed this decision of "Lietuvos Geležinkelių" to the court, but both the Vilnius District Court and the Lithuanian Court of Appeal rejected the company's appeal.
Vilnius railway node and section Kaišiadorys–Klaipeda "Lietuvos Geležinkeliai" announced the electrification tender in December 2017. It is planned that after the implementation of the project, more than three quarters of all cargo and two thirds of passengers will be transported by electrified railway in Lithuania.
Currently, the length of electrified existing railway roads in Lithuania is 9%. of the entire railway network. According to "Lietuvos geležinkėlių", this is the lowest indicator in the EU, where electrified railway tracks account for an average of 52,7 percent.
Author: Šarūnas Sabaitis
