Italian company Ansaldo, French company Alstom, and Chinese company CRSC last Thursday submitted their bids in the Greater Tel Aviv light rail Red Line tender, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. announced. The company offering the lowest bid will win the tender, after NTA decided not to take assign quality ratings to the bidders.
An informed source said that seven international companies had expressed interest in the tender, which is worth an estimated NIS 300 million. As soon as they became aware that CRSC was competing, however, they decided not to participate, due to the low price that the Chinese company is able to offer. IF CRSC wins the tender, as expected by market sources, it will be its first project in the European market.
Up until three months ago, CRSC was slated to carry out the signals project exclusively without a tender in order to enable NTA to meet the timetable, after the preceding tender was canceled early this year because the bids by Alstom and Tat were too high. This plan did not go through, however, and NTA decided to hold another tender.
The signals system contains railway command and control components - coordination with the traffic light system and a switch to automated driving in tunnels. The systems are to be installed in the railway carriages, on the tracks, and in the infrastructure rooms.
NTA is currently conducting a tender for the Red Line systems, including the light rail tracks, electrical and communications systems, and for integration of all the railway systems.
NTA's announcement said that the project was progressing according to the planned timetable, with operation of the Red Line scheduled to begin in October 2021. Last week marked two years since work on building the Red Line railways began.
The Red Line will be the first line in the light rail network. It will start in Petah Tikva, go through Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, and Tel Aviv, and end in Bat Yam. It is expected to serve 250,000 residents and workers in the Greater Tel Aviv area.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 13, 2017
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