A consortium of Bulgarian, Romanian and Spanish companies has won one of the largest public procurement tenders of the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) for the modernization of the Kostenets – September train track for BGN 379 million. The Bulgarian participant bears the markings of a classic shell company, the Spanish partner has no experience in railway construction, while the Romanian company, which has a modest experience, has been accused by the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of theft of European Union (EU) funds from the rehabilitation of a railroad, a joint investigation by Bivol and the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism “Rise Romania” reveals.

The public procurement tender for the rehabilitation of the 24.5 km section between the towns of Kostenets and Septemvri was announced in July 2017,then stopped and resumed twice, while in August 2018 the examination of the offers eventually started. The price offers were opened on November 21, as shown on the tender page on the NRIC website. The decision for the selection of a winning bidder was published on Monday, December 10.

The project is extremely complex with very specialized engineering equipment, experts in railway construction told Bivol. The section represents a 24.5 km two-track railroad with two train stations, three single-pipe tunnels with a length of 4.5 km, one underpass, three overpasses, 23 bridges and viaducts with a length of 2.23 km, 4 km of retaining walls, 48 waterways, 9.2 km of roads, 4.2 km of noise barriers, a pedestrian underpass, 42 intersections, as well as route-computer centralization at the Kostenets