November 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) said it has received 28 bids for construction of Zheleznitsa tunnel and adjacent sections of Struma motorway - a project with a total indicative value of 250 million levs ($141.6 million/128 million euro).
Tendering for the project has been divided into three lots to ensure completion of works on schedule, the government road agency said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Lots 1 and 3, which envisage the construction of sections of the motorway at each of the ends of the tunnel, have indicative values of 33.5 million levs and 22.1 million levs and must be completed within 600 days and 660 days, respectively. The two lots have attracted a total of 15 bids from 10 tie-ups and five companies.
Lot 2, which envisages the design and construction of the tunnel itself, has attracted 13 bids from 10 tie-ups and three companies. Lot 2 has an indicative value of 194.3 million levs. Its construction must be completed within 1,060 days.
The project benefits from EU financing under Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020. It must be completed by December 2023 in order to comply with the programme's requirements or Bulgaria might lose the financing.
The implementation of the project has been delayed by the cancellation of the previous two tenders for construction of the tunnel.
The original tender procedure was cancelled in April because the National Company Strategic Infrastructure Projects had misinformed the candidates that they could place offers higher than the indicative value of the project, Pirin Penchev, the head of RIA, said at the time.
Tendering was relaunched in September but was cancelled for a second time in October due to changes in the technical criteria for the selection of offers.
The Struma motorway will link Bulgaria's capital Sofia to Kulata checkpoint on the border with Greece. Its construction has been divided into four sections, of which three have already been built.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)