February 17 (SeeNews) - Croatia will sign soon a 3.0 billion kuna ($437 million/403 million euro) contract with Turkey's Cengiz for the revamp of a 43 km railway section leading to the border with Hungary, transport minister Oleg Butkovic said.
"The construction contract is going to be signed soon. We expect that similar to other infrastructure projects in Croatia, many domestic companies will also take part," Butkovic said in a statement on Sunday.
In July, Croatian railway infrastructure operator HZ Infrastruktura said it received 10 bids in its tender for the project which includes an upgrade and doubling of tracks between the towns of Krizevci and Koprivnica, in the northern part of the country.
The project is of strategic importance for Croatia, representing the biggest railway infrastructure investment in the country's recent history, with 85% of the financing coming from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), HZ Infrastruktura has said.
The project aims to improve the railway link in the Croatian part of the Mediterranean corridor, which stretches from the border with Hungary via Zagreb to the Adriatic port of Rijeka, helping increase the port's cargo traffic and strengthen its competitiveness.
The Mediterranean corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) connects Croatia to neighbouring Hungary and Slovenia, and Southern Europe to Eastern Europe, from Spain to the Ukrainian border.
HZ Infrastruktura said in July that the lowest bid was submitted by a Chinese consortium comprising Sinohydro Corporation Limited and Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 4 co, which offered 2.410 billion kuna without VAT, while the 2.418 billion kuna offer of Turkeys Cengiz Insaat was second lowest.
The remaining bidders included a regional consortium of Croatia's DIV Grupa, Bosnia's Intgral Inzenjering and Slovakia's TSS Grade (offering 2.535 billion kuna), another Chinese consortium comprising China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group and China Railway Electrification Engineering Group (with 2.83 billion kuna), a tie-up of Turkey's Yapi Merkezi Insaat and Croatia's Kolektor Koling (with 2.869 billion kuna), a consortium of Italy's Rizzani de Eccher and Slovenia's SZ-Zeleznisko Gradbeno Podjetje (2.882 billion kuna), Greece's Avax (2.898 billion kuna), a tie-up led by Austria's Strabag (2.979 billion kuna), a consortium of Spain's Comsa and Italy's GCF Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie (3.03 billion kuna), and Spain's SA de Obras y Servisios, Copasa (with 3.054 billion kuna).
(1 euro = 7.45028 kuna)