Following a series of discussions last week, the NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. tenders committee has decided to hold a final hearing on January 16 concerning the Tel Aviv area light rail Red Line tender. The tender can be irrevocably canceled after the hearing. NTA sent the Alstom-Minrav Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MNRV) group a summons, while the TAT group, which includes a consortium of French companies and Shapir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd., has completely withdrawn from the tender.
PB, which is advising NTA, estimated the tender at NIS 2.4 billion, an assessment confirmed by Aegis, the company supervising the project on behalf of the Ministry of Finance Accountant General Department. Alstom's actual bid was NIS 4.3 billion, while the TAT group's bid was nearly NIS 6 billion, thereby eliminating it from consideration in the tender at this stage.
Industry sources asserted that PB's estimate did not reflect the project's sized, and had not taken the many risks in the project into account. The Alston-Minrav group has made extensive efforts in recent weeks to convince NTA to compromise on a price in the NIS 3-3.5 billion range. NTA, however, has persisted in its refusal to pay more that the PB estimate, insisting that the project timetable with an October 2021 launch can still be met if the tender is canceled.
If the tender is indeed called off, NTA is likely to split the project into several sections. The most likely scenario is one tender for work on the tracks and physical infrastructure, and another for the signals system, which is the actual operating system for the train: electrification, ticketing, information, other electronic systems. NTA is seriously considering inviting Chinese systems companies to participate in the tender, provided that the Chinese companies have joint ventures with major companies in the industry, such as Alstom, Bombardier, and Hitachi.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 8, 2017
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