Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The "short list" for the project "Technical support for Modernization of Railway Line Vidin - Sofia, was approved. It was published on the internet page of the European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/cgi/frame12.pl) on February16, 2007. The limited procedure was announced on December 7, 2006. Till the dead-line for submission of application forms, at 16.00 o'clock on January 2007, 19 declarations were submitted, from which 7 companies were chosen to take part in the "short list". The firms which continue their participation in the tender procedure are:

1. Ibėrica de Estudios e Ingenieria, S.A. (IBERINSA), Spain

ILF Beratende Ingenieure ZT GmbH (ILF Consulting Engineers), Austria

Ingenieria y Economia de Transporte, S. A. (INECO), Spain

"TRANSSYSTEM" Ltd, Bulgaria   

Geotechnoengineering Ltd., Bulgaria

2. SCETAUROUTE, France

Obermeyer, Germany

Semaly, France

BCEOM, France

3. Ingenieurbüro Dipl.-Ing. H. Vössing GmbH, Germany

Mailänder Ingenieur Consult GmbH (Germany)

4. GPO INGENIERIA, Spain

RISK ENGINEERING LTD (Bulgaria)

ASESORES DE INFRAESTRUCTURAS (Spain)

MCRIT (Spain)

RESEARCH CONSULTANCY AND DESIGN CENTER AT UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE CIVIL ENGINEERING AND GEODESY - SOFIA (Bulgaria)

5. Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd, UK

ST "TRAPS - Toma Yotsov", Bulgaria

Transgeo Ltd, Bulgaria

6. TRANSURB TECHNIRAIL SA - Belgium

"EQUIP 2000 - Kotov & co" Partnership, Bulgaria

7. SYSTRA, France

SUDOP PRAHA, Chech Republic

LOUIS BERGER, France

The final date for submission of the tender documents is April 23, 2007. After carrying out of an evaluation of the offers received, according to the rules of the European Union, the contract is expected to be signed till the end of June 2007.

The range of the technical support includes the accomplishing of the following tasks and activities:

• pre-investment research and modernization possibilities: demand prognosis and traffic analysis, identification and evaluation of the potential improvement scenario;
• modernization requirements: detailed analysis and preliminary project of the preferred modernization scenario; financial analysis - financial plan, evaluation report, report for the exploitation compatibility evaluation, according to the Railway exploitation compatibility directive;
• detailed modernization program and implementation strategy.

The financing of the project is ensured with the program ISPA in amount of 85% from the total value and 15% Bulgarian financing. The maximal budget of the project comes up to 3 800 000 Euro.

The time for execution of the contract is 24 months.

For additional information:
Vera Deianova, Press Centre,
Ministry of Transport
Phone: 940 95 34
E-Mail: vdeianova@mt.government.bg