Ljubljana/Jesenice, 16 April (STA) - The Infrastructure Directorate has launched a new public call for a major upgrade of Jesenice railway station and its associated rail hub. This follows the cancellation of a previous call earlier this year after bids significantly exceeded the available budget, despite the project's official estimated value having already increased substantially.
The deadline for submitting offers in the new call is 19 May. The maximum permissible bid value has been set at EUR 147.2 million, including VAT, which is considerably lower than the lowest offer received during the unsuccessful first attempt late last year.
At that time, the project's estimated value had already risen from an initial EUR 81 million to EUR 137 million due to market condition before the call was even published, and the lowest bid still came in significantly higher at EUR 170 million, prompting additional negotiations that collapsed in March.
The comprehensive upgrade project includes modernising tracks and overhead power lines, constructing new platforms and refurbishing existing ones, extending an underpass to improve access and link areas of the town, adjusting signalling and power supply systems, and refurbishing parts of the station building.
The project is supported by nearly EUR 56.6 million in funding awarded by the European Commission through the Connecting Europe Facility.
The directorate proceeded with the new call after a review confirmed the project's necessity and scope, despite the previous bids being deemed reasonable market prices but ultimately unaffordable within the allocated funds.
