BDZ will announce a tender for the repair of 89 passenger carriages

The state-owned company BDZ – Passenger Transport is preparing to announce a new tender for the repair of passenger carriages after a previous large-scale order worth nearly BGN 109 million was terminated in June 2024. The new procedure will include the repair of 84 passenger carriages and 5 sleeping carriages. This became clear from a response by Transport Minister Grozdan Karadzhov to a parliamentary question.

The upcoming tender will be divided into 10 separate lots, as decided by the Board of Directors of Holding BDZ at the end of last year, several months after the tender for the repair of 133 carriages was terminated.

The documentation prepared for the procedure has been submitted for review to the Public Procurement Agency (PPA), which has expressed its opinion and made recommendations for amendments. At present, the revised documents are expected to be returned to the PPO for review and subsequent launch of the procedure," the minister added in his reply.

However, no indication was given as to what the new estimated value of the tender would be.

Market consultations conducted last year showed that the only bid received was from the Bulgarian company Kolovag AD. There is no information that other companies took part in the consultations.

Kolovag's proposal for the repair of carriages is structured in 10 separate items, including prices excluding VAT for different types of repairs and series of carriages. The average cost of repairing a carriage ranges from BGN 740,000 for a 1974 series carriage to just over BGN 1 million for a 1940 series carriage. Overhaul of 1563 series carriages is offered at BGN 1.2 million per unit, and for 760 mm gauge carriages at BGN 250,000 per unit. The total cost of medium repairs for 50 series 2974 carriages is the highest – BGN 37.9 million excluding VAT. Kolovag AD has not offered prices for the overhaul of five series 7071 sleeping carriages. Thus, the total cost of all proposed repairs amounts to almost BGN 65 million excluding VAT.

We would like to remind you that the public procurement contract for the overhaul and medium repair of 133 passenger carriages worth almost BGN 109 million excluding VAT was terminated in June 2024. The reason given for the termination was repairs to the railway network, which change the train schedule (GTV) and require changes to the train composition plan (PKV).

In the previous tender, bids were submitted by the Bulgarian company Kolovag AD, the Slovak company ZOS Vrutky AD, and the consortium Euroremont. The consortium Euroremont was declared the winner for all 15 separate lots.

Translated with DeepL.