A CONSORTIUM of the Austrian companies Strabag and Porr Solutions Immobilien-und Infrastrukturprojekte submitted the lowest bid in a tender for the second package of public-private partnership (PPP) highway projects to build and operate sections of the R1 dual carriageway between Nitra and Tekovské Nemce. The consortium submitted a bid of €1.38 billion, the SITA newswire reported.
The second tender for PPP projects concerns three prepared stretches of the R1 dual carriageway between Nitra and Selenec, Selenec and Beladice, and Beladice and Tekovské Nemce, with a total length of 47 km, as well as construction of a 5.7km-long northern bypass of Banská Bystrica. These are considered the least technically complex of the three PPP highway projects.
The estimated cost of the stretch between Nitra and Tekovské Nemce was originally Sk16.666 billion (€553.2 million) excluding VAT, but the government has already admitted that the global financial crisis represents a risk to the PPP projects.
Other bids ranged from €1.5 to €1.84 billion.
