Metro Line 4 tender speeds up as AVAX and AKTOR withdraw their appeals

There are no more obstacles for the tender that concerns the construction of the new Line 4 of the Athens Metro as the two finalists are stopping their “legal siege”.

A few days after the first step with the non-submission of objections to the new minutes of the technical evaluation of the two candidates which was submitted to the CoC by Attiko Metro. That means that rapid developments are imminent.

According to information, AKTOR was the first to withdraw its appeal from the CoC (it concerned the request for annulment in the previous minutes of Attiko Metro). Legal circles note in ypodomes.com that after the tacit acceptance of the two consortia (AKTOR-Ansaldo-Hitachi and AVAX-Ghella-Alstom Transport), there was essentially no point in continuing the process due to the acceptance of the new minutes.

According to secure information from ypodomes.com, in the coming days AVAX will do the same, opening the door for the completion of the competition.
The next step is the announcement of Attiko Metro for the completion of the phase of the technical offers and the determination of a date for the opening of the offers that will reveal which of the two consortia will take over the “golden” contract.

It should be noted that this is a great success. The insistence of the government and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and of the Minister, Costas Karamanlis himself, despite the many hurdles that existed for the competition, is justified by the developments and is credited as a great success.

The project, in addition to its social and economic value, also has its political dimension as it shows a commitment of the government to the implementation of a project that will bring almost 2 billion euros to the real economy in the midst of an objectively difficult situation.

It should also be noted that the moves of Attiko Metro, despite the initial fears that the technical offers were mishandled, contributed to the end of a long period of contesting the tender.

The next steps

With the opening of the financial offers, the two consortia have the right (based on law 4412/2016) to appeal again. After the latest developments, however, this scenario seems to be moving away.

This will mean firstly the announcement of the bidder of the project and then announcing him as a temporary contractor. The next step is to send the contract to the Court of Auditors to be audited and approved and then its passage as a major project by the Greek Parliament.

The last step is the signing of the construction contract that will finally send the project to implementation. The contract can be signed in the first quarter of 2021.

The green light for the big project of Line 4 will of course lead to contracting and the tender for the preliminary works with ERETVO being the contractor company. At the same time, the competition for the Technical Consultant who will supervise the project will run again from Attiko Metro. The main projects are in no way expected to start earlier than 2023.