Spanish tramcars arrive to Belgrade – tender for purchase of 30 vehicles finalized

Spanish company, CAF, has won the tender for purchase of new tramcars, as it was confirmed yesterday (August, 17th, 2009) by the Mayer, Dragan Djilas, to “Blic” newspapers. As it was earlier announced, modern, low-floor and air conditioned tramcars should be on the streets by the end of the next year.

Commission made of professionals and experts from the City Transportation Company “Belgrade”, from Engineering Faculty and City Parliament, have reached a decision after careful examination of offers, as it was a matter of 60 million euros deal. Only one vehicle costs about 2 million euros.

One part of the means is provided from the city’s budget, and other part is coming from European Investment Bank’s loan. The exact date when the tramcars would be on Belgrade streets is going to be known as soon as the Government signs the contract with the Supplier. The last tramcar, among a total of 30, should be delivered in three years the latest. Even tough there were certain assumptions that the supplier has already been chosen, Agency for investments was still not ready to make announcements. General Manager of the City Transportation Company “Belgrade”, Radoslav Nikolic, says that the decision hasn’t been made yet, adding that only technical commission reviewed the offers.

Tender for purchase of 30 new tramcars was published on April, 29th, and due date for submission of offers was June, 20th. There hasn’t been any official information of bidders’ names, but according to some sources, tender documentation was taken by 14 potential suppliers. Still, final offer was submitted only by two companies – the Spanish CFA and Croatian “Koncar elektricna vozila”. At first, Croatian media published information that “Koncar” had already won the tender, but obviously all the dilemmas are now solved.

(Note: the text was taken from “Blic” newspapers, from August, 18th, 2009)