March 30 (SeeNews) - Albania has extended by a further three weeks the deadline for submitting bids for a concession contract for the construction, operation and maintenance of an international airport in the city of Vlora due to the coronavirus crisis, local media reported.
The ministry of infrastructure and energy has extended the deadline to April 21 from March 30, Tirana Times daily reported on Friday.
Accordingly, the evaluation of the bids and the construction of the airport, which was scheduled to start in May, will also be delayed.
The ministry previously postponed the deadline to March 30 from March 12.
Tirana Times also reported that Albania's government has decided to guarantee the future concessionaire’s revenue for at least 10 years if the offered price does not exceed 138 million euro ($152.58 million).
The guaranteed revenue is expected to total about 140 million euro, Tirana Times quoted government officials as saying. The total revenue will be divided equally between the concessionaire and the government if the projected revenue is exceeded.
“This project carries high risks because it is an airport built from scratch on a green field, and it is impossible to accurately predict the turnover and air traffic. Also, according to the forecast of the consultant contracted by the Contracting Authority, a low rate of return of 9.23 percent is observed in the base case scenario," Tirana Times quoted the ministry of infrastructure and energy as saying.
The proposed term of the concession agreement will be 35 years under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, infrastructure minister Belinda Balluku said in December.
($ = 0.904430 euro)