Attiko Metro expects shortlist of bidders for expansion project by March
Greece’s state-owned subway operator, Attiko Metro, will finalize a short-list of four interested contractors in a tender to build a 1.45-billion-euro expansion project by March, its managing director said on Monday.
The investors who expressed interest in the project last year are Greek contractor GEK Terna with France’s Vinci and Siemens; J&P Avax with Italy’s Ghella and France’s Alstom; Greek construction firm Aktor with Hitachi Rail Italy; Spain’s FCC with Archirodon and Mytilineos.
Attiko Metro had been expected to complete a shortlist of potential contractors by the end of last year.
The operator shortlisted all four contractors last month, but it will review the list by March after examining objections filed by all interested investors over whether some of their rivals met the criteria set in the tender, managing director Theodoros Papadopoulos told Reuters.
Attiko Metro is now evaluating the objections, while investors also have the right to take their case to Greece’s top administrative court, the Council of State, Papadopoulos said.
“Once we finalize who they [shorlisted investors] are, we will invite them to submit their financial and technical offers,” he said. “I hope that all these [shorlisting and invitation] will conclude in March.”
Construction of the 13-kilometer expansion – which will be co-financed by European funds and loans by the European Investment Bank – is expected to begin in 2019 and will be completed within eight years.
[Reuters]
