LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), March 27 (SeeNews) – Slovenia's 2TDK, the state-owned project company established for the construction of a second track of the Divaca-Koper railway line, said it signed on Friday an 8.5 million euro ($9.3 million) deal with a consortium comprising three local firms - MarkoMark Nival, Nival Invest and Ekorel - for preparatory works.
The consortium will build two bridges and a gallery in the Glinscica valley, 2TDK said in a statement, adding that 85% of the project financing will come from EU grants.
Construction works are expected to start in August and to last until November 2021, the statement read.
The consortium should submit in the next 15 days a guarantee for the quality of execution of the works, as well as copies of the construction and project design insurance policies, 2TDK said.
In January, 2TDK said it received 29 bids in a tender for construction of the Divaca-Koper railway's second track which is divided into two lots.
In May, the European Investment Bank approved a loan of up to 250 million euro for the construction of a second track of the Divaca-Koper railway line.
Luka Koper, the company operating Slovenia's Adriatic port of Koper, said in January 2019 that the second railway track to Divaca is planned to be completed by 2025 and to begin operations the following year.
According to information published by 2TDK, the investment in the project will total some 1.2 billion euro. The new 27-kilometre long track along with the existing one will offer a combined capacity of 231 trains per day, or 43.4 million net tonnes of cargo per year, the company has said.
($=0.910848 euro)