The tender on offer was for construction of a 32 km stretch of highway to link the towns of Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora. Photo by BGNES
The Bulgarian Agency 'Road Infrastructure’ has confirmed that the Bulgarian consortium 'Unified Highway Trace' has won the contract for construction of a new section of the Trakiya Highway
The tender on offer was for construction of a 32 km stretch of highway to link the towns of Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora and Bulgarian media reports had already suggested on Wednesday that "Unified Highway Trace" had won it.
The Bulgarian alliance submitted the lowest bid - BGN 137,86 M - in competition with three other approved applicants. Cost had been declared as one of the most important criteria.
The low price of the winning bid - approximately one third of the highest figure, and at a lower cost per kilometre than the consortium had received for a similar contract in 2005-2007, has been explained by the consortium’s management as reflecting local transport and material costs - the consortium's operation is based near Stara Zagora.
Four other hopeful bidders had their submissions disallowed, for undisclosed reasons. One of the excluded groups, Austrian "Strabag", later filed an official complaint with the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), seeking to have the tender award annulled.