TIRANA, Sept. 7 – Albania’s first-ever road concession project has taken a U-turn after the country’s public procurement watchdog has invalidated a Turkish-led winning bid and proposed another bidder as the winner of 30-year concession contract to upgrade and manage a 114-km highway segment linking Albania to Kosovo, making it the country’s first toll road.
The Public Procurement Commission has ruled the transport ministry’s bid evaluation commission must invalidate the bid by a Turkish consortium led by Vendeka Bilgi Teknolojileri Ltd and announce a United Arab Emirates-consortium led by Catalyst Viva Das General Contracting LLC which also included several Albanian partners as winner.
The decision came after a complaint filed by the UAE-led consortium which also includes Salillari, one of Albania’s biggest construction companies, and Kastrati, the biggest oil importer and trader.
The change in decision, which is expected to be challenged at the Administrative Court by the Turks, seems to have been led by lower subsidies in traffic guarantees required by the UAE-led consortium, although the bids evaluation commission gave a priority to higher planned investment by the Turkish consortium in its July decision.
The Turkish consortium led by Vendeka Bilgi Teknolojileri Ltd bid to invest an initial €50 million and requested state subsidies of €5.6 million compared to the UAE-led consortium’s proposed initial investment of €43.4 million and state subsidies of about €5 million.
The cancellation of the bid by the Turkish-led consortium could further strain relations with Turkey, one of the country’s strategic partners and top foreign investors, which has asked Albania to dismantle institutions linked to what it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) allegedly run by U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen whom it accused of masterminding the failed July 15-16 coup to topple Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The tender held earlier this year seemed to give an end to several previous efforts in the past couple of years failing to produce a winner because of unfavorable bids “running counter to public interest.”
However, with an expected legal battle and contract negations, tolls are little likely to be introduced before the June 2017 general elections.
The expected introduction of €5 tolls for the Albania-Kosovo highway sparked reactions by the opposition Democratic Party and the local business community who fear increased costs will have a negative impact on Albania-Kosovo trade exchanges and tourists arrivals. Kosovo is the country’s second largest trading partner for exports while tourist arrivals from the neighboring ethnic Albanian country account for about half of foreign visitors in Albania’s ‘patriotic’-dominated tourism.
A local business community in the northeastern region of Kukes, one of the country’s poorest areas close to the Kosovo border, said local businesses would lose €1.4 million a year from the toll.
The winning concessionaire is supposed to collect and keep toll revenue and in exchange implement and finance motorway improvement measures, construct a new bridge on Drini River in Kukes, northeastern Albania and carry out emergency geotechnical and stabilization works.
Linking Milot, approximately 60 km northeast of the Adriatic Port of Durres, with Morine at the Kosovo border, the route forms the central section of the wider Albania-Kosovo highway, connecting Durres with the Kosovo capital Prishtina.
Operational since June 2009, the Durres-Kukes highway and its 5.5 km twin-bore Thirre tunnel is estimated to cost government around €4 million annually in maintenance. The state budget could still be affected as the concessionaire is expected to require traffic guarantees in contract negotiations.
The highway, which is estimated to have cost Albania a staggering €1 billion became fully open to traffic in 2010. Its major 60 km Rreshen-Kalimash segment was built by Bechtel-Enka, a U.S.-Turkish consortium.
The highway has given a boost to trade exchanges with Kosovo which has emerged as Albania’s second most destination of exports.
If Kosovo also concludes plans to impose tolls on its part of the Highway of Nation, a return trip to the neighboring country could cost an extra €20, becoming a significant barrier for businesses and households in both countries, who are among Europe’s poorest.
