Romania’s Transport Ministry signed a one-year contract with French engineering company Alstom, under which the latter will keep providing maintenance for the Bucharest subway for a price of RON 192 million (EUR 39 mln), the ministry announced on the last day of 2019, according to Agerpres.

Due to the circumstances, an auction was not possible, explained Alstom officials quoted by News.ro. They explained that the new contract was awarded under transparent procedures and implied that a competitive auction will take place by the end of the year.

The ministry said that Metrorex, the state company that operates the Bucharest subway, received a transfer of RON 150 million (EUR 31 mln) from the state budget, under the budget revision operated on December 24, and was thus able to pay the debt owed to Alstom for the services delivered in 2019.

Alstom had conditioned delivering maintenance services to Metrorex under another contract on the payment of the due debt.

Separately, Metrorex received money from the state budget to pay RON 60 mln (EUR 12.5 mln) to the Association Astaldi SpA - FCC Construccion SA, Delta ACM 93, AB Construct, which is the last tranche of the RON 190 mln (EUR 40 mln) award set by the court in 2018 in favor of the Association that is building a new subway line in the western part of the city.

(Photo: C Andrei Gabriel Stanescu Dreamstime)

editor@romania-insider.com