Within project “Electrification of the Latvian Railway Network”, a negotiated procedure has been announced on 10 August with a published participation invitation “Electrification of the Latvian Railway Network: Construction”, which is Phase 1 of the procurement for the electrification program planned until 2030.
The procurement procedure will be held in two rounds. Applicants can submit qualification documents for the first round by October 22, 2018. The procurement documentation is available at the home page of VAS Latvijas dzelzceļš (LDz); likewise, information about the procurement is available in the system of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB) and the Official Gazette of the European Union.
During Phase 1 of the railway electrification, the total costs are expected at EUR 441 million (the announced procurement amount thereof is EUR 425 million). Of the total costs for Phase 1, EUR 347 million are provided as co-funding from the European Union Cohesion Fund; and the remaining EUR 94 million are provided by own funds of VAS Latvijas dzelzceļš.
During Phase 1 of electrification, it is planned to electrify the following railway lines by the end of 2023: Daugavpils–Krustpils, Rēzekne-Krustpils and Krustpils-Riga.
The announced procurement provides for construction/reconstruction of these lines’ power supply systems, contact line system, alarm system, centralisation and blocking, and communication system, rail road, technical security system, buildings and structures, thus ensuring the functionality of one fully electrified transit corridor by 2023.
On 29 March this year, LDz received an opinion from the Central Finance and Contracting Agency that supports the project and its submission to the Ministry of Finance for further advancement at the European Commission. The final opinion from JASPERS* experts has been obtained, and before transferring the project documentation to the European Commission (EC), it will be assessed by an independent expert from the EC technical support under JASPERS IQR (JASPERS Independent Quality Review).
In the meanwhile, a funding procedure has been initiated with the European Investment Bank to provide for LDz co-funding.
The project will be implemented within measure 6.2.1.1 “Electrification of the Latvian Railway Network” of specific support objective 6.2.1 “To ensure a competitive and environmentally-friendly TEN-T railway network, promoting its safety, quality and capacity” of operational programme “Development and Employment”.
* JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions) is a partnership between three partners (European Commission, EIB and EBRD), which provides technical assistance to the Member States of the EU in the Central and Eastern Europe to help prepare high quality major projects to be submitted to the European Commission for support and co-funding from EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds. JASPERS’ assistance aims at facilitating sooner approval of projects at the European Commission and successful implementation of the cohesion policy. This service is free of charge for Member States.
VAS Latvijas dzelzceļš is a public railway infrastructure manager and the Latvian Railways Group holding company. The group includes six subsidiaries: AS LatRailNet, which determines infrastructure charges and distributes railway infrastructure capacity; SIA LDZ CARGO, which provides rail freight and international passenger transport services; SIA LDZ infrastruktūra – an infrastructure construction and maintenance company; SIA LDZ ritošā sastāva serviss – a rolling stock repair and maintenance company; SIA LDZ apsardze – a security company; and SIA LDZ Loģistika – a logistics company.