Trace Group-led Bulgarian tie-up bids lowest for building Gabrovo beltway

The Obhod Gabrovo consortium, which also comprises Bulgarian civil engineering companies Integrated Road Systems and IPS Infrastructures, has offered to do the job for 72.5 million levs ($49.3 million/37.1 million euro), Value Added Tax included, for a period of 540 days, the government agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

The other bidders are Bulgarian consortium PSVT, Greman-Bulgarian consortium Max Boegl-Inzhstroy Gabrovo 2012, Bulgarian tie-up Pat Gabrovo 2012 and Spanish construction company Askan.

The construction of the beltway around Gabrovo, in central Bulgaria, is the first stage of a project co-financed under EU operational programme Transport, which also provides for the construction of a tunnel under the Shipka peak, in the Stara Planina mountain range. The indicative value of the second stage, to be implemented in the 2014-2020 period, is 150 million euro ($199.5 million).

(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)