November 10 (SeeNews) - Romanian railway operator CFR said on Thursday it has signed a contract worth 2.11 billion lei ($431 million/430 million euro) with an international tie-up for the electrification and modernisation of the railway infrastructure and superstructure on the Poieni-Alesd section.
The contract has a duration of 42 months, of which six months for the design stage and 36 months for the execution stage, CFR said in a press release.
The consortium includes Spanish construction company FCC Construccion, Turkey's Gulermak and France's CCN.
Following the works, passenger and freight trains will support travel speeds of up to 160 km/h and 120 km/h respectively, on the targeted railway segment between Poieni and Alesd, which has a length of 52.74 km.
The section is part of the 166.2 km-long Cluj Napoca-Oradea-Episcopia Bihor-Frontiera railway line.
A number of train stations and stops, bridges and tunnels will undergo modernisation works as part of the contract. Also, automated signaling systems will be implemented at road crossings along the railway.
The financing is provided from non-reimbursable funds under the EU-backed National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, PNRR.
CFR was founded in 1880 and currently manages approximately 10,628 km of railway infrastructure.
(1 euro=4.8919 lei)