LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), February 26 (SeeNews) – Turkey's Cengiz has submitted the required bank guarantee to Slovenian state-owned motorway company DARS concerning the construction of a 120 million euro ($130 million) second pipe of the Karavanke motorway tunnel, local media reported.
DARS has received the bank guarantee and will now examine the documents, state news agency STA reported on Tuesday, quoting DARS officials as saying.
DARS and Cengiz signed the deal for the construction of Karavanke's second pipe at the end of January. In December, DARS named Cengiz as the winner of a tender for construction of Karavanke's second pipe after lowering its offer to 98.5 million euro without VAT from the originally proposed 99.6 million euro.
In February, the European Investment Bank (EIB) said it is lending 90 million euro to DARS to finance the construction of the new tube at the Karavanke motorway tunnel, which is a key road connection between Slovenia and Austria.
The project will increase safety and reduce queues on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridor between the Baltics, Adriatic and Mediterranean, the EIB has said.
It has added it will provide a separate 95 million euro loan to Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG to connect the existing highway in the country to the new tunnel tube.
The future eastern pipe of the Karavanke tunnel on Slovenian territory, to the border with Austria, will be 3,546 metres in length.
($=0.9198 euro)