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Romania changes the winner of €570m rail modernisation scheme

The National Railway Company of Romania (Caile Ferate Român, or CFR) has announced that it has awarded the €570m contract for the modernisation of a railway line between the towns of Apata and Cata in the centre of the country to a French, Greece and Romanian consortium after first selecting a Turkish team for the work.

In January, CFR named a joint venture between the Alarko Contracting Group and Makyol to upgrade the 28km line. It has now re-evaluated the bids and chosen instead the RailWorks Association, which is made up of Aktor of Greece, France’s Alstom, and local companies Arcada and Euroconstruct Trading.

Alarko and Makyol have lodged an appeal against CFR’s change of mind at Romania’s National Council for Resolving Complaints against the decision.

The aim of the work is to increase speed on the line to 160km/h, and will involve strengthening bridges, building tunnels and viaducts and installing new power and fibre-optic signal lines.

As it forms part of the Rhine-Danube corridor, the EU is to provide 82% of the funding through the Connecting Europe Facility, with the remaining 18% to come from the Romanian government.

The contract with RailWorks is to be signed after the Turkish companies’ appeal is settled.

Image: ©GCR, illustration by Denis Carrier

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