Bulgaria seeks maintenance services for Siemens electric locomotives

The nine-year contract will start after the expiry of the warranty on the Siemens X4-E-Lok-D Series 1080 locomotives, BDZ Passengers, part of railway group BDZ Holding, said in a public procurement notice published on Wednesday.

The contract will be awarded following negotiations with potential suppliers of maintenance services, without prior publication of a call for competition. The deadline for submission of offers is December 4.

In 2020, Siemens was awarded a contract worth 82.7 million levs to provide the locomotives, with delivery completed in late 2021.

BDZ Passengers is also conducting market consultations until end-November with the aim of preparing a public tender for the repair and refurbishment of 133 passenger carriages and 10 sleeper carriages.

In September, the transport ministry relaunched tenders worth some 2.72 billion levs for the supply of new electric rolling stock. However, all three procedures are currently halted, the public register shows. The tender for the supply of 35 single-deck electric trains, was suspended due to a complaint by Czech engineering group Skoda Transportation.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)