Warm interest from the constructions world in view of Athens Metro Line 4 bids

The constructions world, both in Greece and overseas is showing a keen interest for the forthcoming Athens Metro Line 4 bids in the end of March 2017. It is undoubtedly the “project of the decade” and it is coming to complete 3 existing Metro Lines in the capital, with a cost of 1.5bn euros. At least 6 major conglomerates are now forming “alliances” relying either on local companies or with the assistance of foreign ones from Europe as well.

For the time being the presence of leading companies such as AKTOR, TERNA, J&P AVAX, INTRAKAT, PORTO KARRAS and METKA is considered to be certain while, according to well-informed sources from the relevant constructions sector, foreign companies are “flirting” with Greek candidates in order to join forces at the imminent tender, given the guaranteed funding of the project from EIB and NSRF 2014-2020.

It is quite interesting that the Ministry’s first course of action was for the tender to split in 2 parts: one for the civil engineering works and the tunneling and a second for the electromechanical equipment and trains’ procurement, an idea that was followingly abandoned due to the tender’s complexity.

What the Infrastructure Ministry’s decision, to unify the tender, essentially means for the constructions companies is that they are going to have larger joint venture to cover the totality of the project’s scope. For the first category, probably Greek companies (e.g. AKTOR, specialized in tunneling) will cover the relevant sub-project while other European companies will be responsible for the trains’ fittings and procurement such as Alstom and Ansalobreda (now belonging to Hitachi).

It is hopefully the final countdown for the bids that will lead to the “golden contract” in the end of 2018 for a project that will last for, roughly, 10 years.

 

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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