A Spanish firm owned by a Chinese state company may be declared the winner of the tender to build a railway bridge over the Neris River, which is part of the Rail Baltica European standard-gauge railway project.
Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG), the country’s state-owned railway company, is proposing to sign the contract, valued at 62.5 million euros, with Spain’s Puentes y Calzadas Infraestructuras.
The contract would involve building a 1.5-km bridge over the Neris River near Jonava, in central Lithuania.
Two thirds of the Puentes y Calzadas Infraestructuras shares belong to Chinese state-owned company China Road and Bridge Corporation. The Spanish company reportedly offered the lowest price and received the highest score during the building contractor’s tender.
China Road and Bridge Corporation is controlled by the major Chinese state-owned company China Communications Construction, which has been under US sanctions since August, as it is linked to China’s military.
LTG confirmed that it was proposing to sign the contract with the Spanish company.
However, the railway company added, the procurement procedures had not been completed yet and the draft contract was now being vetted by a special government commission.
Karolis Sankovski, CEO of LTG Infra, LTG’s infrastructure arm, says the commission is set to decide on whether the Spanish company meets national security criteria.
Rail Baltica is the largest railway infrastructure project in the history of the Baltic States. The tracks will run from Warsaw via Lithuania’s Kaunas to Riga and Tallinn. Estimated to cost around 5.8 billion euros, the railway’s total length will stand at 870 km, including 392 km in Lithuania, 265 km in Latvia and 213 km in Estonia. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
