February 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said on Wednesday that it is looking into complaints against the ranking of offers in a tender for the construction of the 51 km Kostenets-Elin Pelin railway link, worth an estimated 1.02 billion levs ($592 million/522 million euro), VAT excluded.
Complaints against the tender, which is divided into three lots, have been filed by six companies and tie-ups, data published on the Commission for Protection of Competition's website shows.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria's National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) said that a tie-up between Turkey's Duygu Muhendislik Insaat and Cengiz Insaat ranked first in Lot 1, with a 498.8 million levs offer for building a 20 km section.
Lot 2 was won by a consortium comprising local company Gigastroy, Italy's Salcef Costruzioni Edili e Ferroviarie, as well as the Italian company's Bulgarian unit - Salcef, which offered to build a 20 km section - Lot 2, for 126.4 million levs.
A consortium comprising China Communications Construction Company and Bulgaria's Trace-Sofia was ranked first with a 283.8 million levs offer for an 11 km section - Lot 3.
The Elin Pelin - Kostenets section is part of the railway connecting the capital Sofia to Bulgaria's second biggest city Plovdiv.
The project benefits from EU financing under Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020.
The tender was launched in July 2017, but has been severely delayed by numerous complaints filed with the competition regulator, which put its EU financing at risk.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)