The interchange terminal in Plovdiv has been awarded to a Bulgarian-Italian consortium. The Italians Net Engineering and its Bulgarian counterpart, Transgeo, who were given the tender for consulting services for the facility, have tabled an offer of 2.4 million leva with VAT, Stroitelstvo Gradut has reported.

The bids for the tender were initialised on July 7, with several different participants involved in the scheme. Apart from the Bulgarian-Italian partnership, the Spanish Iberinsa and the Bulgarian Transsystem Ltd offered 2 551 200 leva, including VAT, while the Bulgarian company Geotechno Engineering, tabled 2 552 200 with VAT. Having determined the prices and all other technical parametres however, it was decided that Net Engineering and Transgeo offer was superior to its competitors.

The technical assistance for the project which will be provided by Net Engineering incorporates "thorough preliminary studies and research", "comprehensive financial and economic analyses" and "financial opportunities for public-private partnership" Stroitelstvo Gradut has said. Meanwhile the preparation of tender papers came with indicative budget of 1.6 million euro.

According to the technical report, some of the participants bids were not considered at all, as they did not pass the initial first phase of the technical qualification stage. The deadline for the technical bids was set for May 8, whereas the deadline for work on them was until August 5.