The NTA - Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd., which is managing the NIS 15 billion tender for the Tel Aviv light rail, has announced that it is not disqualifying the consortium led by Shikun & Binui Holdings Ltd. (TASE: SKBN) despite the fact that it did not attach proper guarantees to its bid for financing, planning, construction, maintenance, and operating the Tel Aviv light rail Green and Purple Lines.
NTA said that the reason for not nixing the bid was to ensure maximum competitiveness in the tender, in which there are five bids.
On October 12 the consortium comprising Shikun & Binui, Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd., China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. (CRCC) and CRRC Chinese rolling stock manufacturer submitted its bid. But the attached guarantees of NIS 55 million were mistakenly only for the Green Line.
In the past less important errors in tender bids have resulted in disqualifications that have been upheld by the courts. But in this case NTA, which discovered the mistake during its initial perusal of the bid documents, has allowed the consortium to correct the error on what is considered to be the most sensitive part of the documentation.
Sources involved in the affair say that it cannot be ruled out that one of the other bidders could petition the courts to have the consortium disqualified although it is unlikely at this early stage of the tender.
NTA said, "NTA's Tenders Committee is operating legitimately and according to the law. All the decisions taken were on the basis of professional considerations alone and this instance was not exceptional."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 27, 2020
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