The Chinese-Hungarian Railway Nonprofit Ltd. initiated a two-phase tender for the upgrade of the Hungarian stretch of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line. The deadline for submission of tenders is 19 January 2018.
The scope of the project is to upgrade the 166-kilometer railway line stretching between Soroksár, on the southeast outskirts of Budapest, and Kelebia, on the Serbian border, to allow speeds of 160 km/h in future, with mixed traffic, according to the specification related to the existing TEN-T network.
The contract is for building 374 track kilometers, 18 grade-separated and 89 level crossings, 590.4 meters of bridges and the reconstruction of about 444 kilometers of overhead lines and supply wires, among other specifications.
Chinese-Hungarian Railway was set up in the autumn of 2016 based on an intergovernmental agreement between China and Hungary on the project and its financing, signed in November 2015. The state-owned China Railway International Corporation and China Railway International Group hold a combined 85% of Chinese-Hungarian Railway, while MÁV holds 15%.
The contract will be an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract, with the EPC contractor being responsible for all the activities from design, procurement and construction, to commissioning and delivery of the project to the end-user or owner.
By 19 March 2018, Chinese-Hungarian Railway will invite three bidders for the second, final phase and the winning bid will be selected 50% based on the quality of the technical bid and 50% on the financial aspect. The duration of the contract will be 86 months. The cost of the upgrade in Hungary is estimated at HUF 550 bln (EUR 1.7 billion), and work could start by the end of 2020.
The joint venture is responsible for preparing and conducting tenders for the selection of the designer and the contractor, concluding the contracts and carrying out project management and monitoring activities in the implementation phase.
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