New railway projects will have to wait
Railway works company ERGOSE last week approved a set of new-generation projects to upgrade the national network that add up to 3.3 billion euros. However, it will take several years for the construction of the projects to begin.
One of the main problems is that the amount of financing for those works remains unknown, so the necessary funds have not yet been secured from the European Union, be that the Next Generation EU fund or any other funding tool. These are contracts to be implemented as public works, therefore they will have to be included in actions benefiting from one of the EU financial instruments, while it is possible the state will also contribute through the Public Investments Program.
Of course there is still time for that, as the process for expressions of interest is just about getting started, and when the interested groups are shortlisted, a lengthy period of negotiations will follow for the final requirements and the cost of the projects to be defined. That will be then followed by the formal submission of the binding offers.
In the past such concession procedures have taken some five years before bearing fruit.
