Georgia, Tbilisi / Тrend corr N. Kirtskhalia / Eight companies will participate in the international tender of Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC to develop a working project for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and construction of Marabda-Akhalkalaki-freight railway, according to the Georgian Railway LLC.
The names of the companies are not available and the sealed proposals will be opened on 7 September. The successful tender must develop the construction project. The successful tender relating to juridical and financial-budget maintenance of the project will be announced on 5 September.
The tender for construction of the railway will be announced in the second stage.
In accordance with tender terms Marabda-Akhalkalaki-freight railway (width-1,520mm) will provide transportation for 15mln tons of freight. The seismological durability of the railway is 8-magnitude.
The project will envisage the energy supply of the railway, the establishment of adequate communication systems, including fibre-optic cable, as well as the projection of all attendant infrastructures. Financing of the projecting work will be held by Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC.
The successful tender must be able to submit the project in stages by 1 July 2008. Construction of the railway section is planned to begin in 2008 to be completed in 2010.
As a result of the tender, one winner will be announced. He must submit a bank guarantee with the amount of 1% of the total cost of the tender proposals.
The Baku- Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki- Kars project includes the construction of 105km-railway road with 76 km section running via Turkey and 29 km section via Georgia. Moreover, 183 km section of Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway will be also reconstructed to improve the carrying capacity to 15mln tons of cargo per year. The project is assessed at $422mln and taking into account the infrastructure - $600mln.
A $200mln credit will be allocated to the Georgian Government by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan through the Azerbaijani Ministry for 25 years with 1% interest rate. Credit will be repaid at the expense of the funds received from exploitation of the railway. Turkey will finance the projecting work.