Ankara railway project tender to be held again

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The Başkentray project, which involves track upgrade on the Central Anatolian Sincan-Ankara-Kayaş railway line will be put out to tender once again in December this year.

The Turkish State Railways (TCDD) had call for tenders for the Başkentray project tender on April 25, 2012 but the process was not followed through as an objection received on May 15, 2012 saw to its cancelation by the Public Procurement Authority (KİK). The TCDD is reportedly set to call for a second round of tender bids in December.

Among both local and foreign firms, the winning tender offer had been decided last year; however the execution of the tender was later suspended.

A total of 17 local and global firms and consortiums placed proposals in for the tender last year, with the Gülermak-Kolin consortium bidding the winning and the lowest amount, at 186.2 million euros. When Porr Bau GmbH objected to the decision, the execution of the tender was suspended. Some other tender participants had also submitted their official objections as well.

60 mln-pax capacity

The 36 kilometer-long Başkentray project is envisaged to ease local transport in Ankara, and to be integrated into the Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya, Ankara-Sivas high speed railway projects and Ankara urban networks. The project is planned to carry 60 million passengers a year.

The rebuilding of the railway line will play a big role in decreasing train travel time between Ankara and Eskişehir to 1 hours and 5 minutes.