Tender for new urban buses for Athens and Thessaloniki greenlighted

The Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has expressed its primary request for the tender regarding the procurement of 750 urban buses in Athens and Thessaloniki, according to ypodomes.com.

More specifically, these are 490 vehicles (+260 with the option), with a total of 461m euros (VAT incl., amount excl. VAT: 371.8m euros). What remains now is to set the date for the bids submission and its subsequent announcement.

The length of the contract including the maintenance of the buses is set at 17 years. In more detail, the maintenance will last 15 years from the reception of each bus. The funding is currently covered by the Public Investments Programme until this commission is included in NSRF 2014-2020. According to the notice issued by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is the conracting authority, the supply includes:

• -100 18m long articulated city buses, EURO VI 
• - 200 simple CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) buses 12m long, with an option for the ordering of 130 more vehicles (up to 330 in total)
• -190 simple electric buses 12m long, with an option for the ordering of 130 more vehicles (up to 320 in total)
• - 190 fixed slow chargers (with option for the purchase of another 130, i.e. a total of 320),
• - 13 mobile slow chargers (with the option for the purchase of another 9, i.e. a total of 22) and
• - 19 fast chargers (with the option for the purchase of another 13, i.e. a total of 32), for electric buses.

Given that the tender will be called during the summer, a first estimate would be that a contractor could be awarded in 2020 putting the conclusion of the commission in 2022. What remains as question is when this procurement will be included in the NSRF, thus making it easier to be financed.

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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Yoo Chung