PRETORIA – Plans by the Bombela Concession Company, the operators of the Gautrain, to acquire new trains for the rapid rail link system to alleviate congestion during the morning and evening peak periods have been dashed.
The Gautrain Management Agency and the Bombela Concession Company reported on Tuesday that the outcome of the evaluation of the bids by three pre-qualified bidders to the a procurement process initiated in February 2016 was that no compliant bid was received and no preferred bidder would be appointed.
The three pre-qualified bidders were Bombardier Transport, CRRC E-Loco (Supply) and the Egoli Rail Consortium.
The Bombela Concession Company and Gautrain Management Agency said the procurement followed all regulatory processes and concluded with the submission of final proposals in October this year, with the evaluation by teams of legal, technical, financial and economic development experts completed earlier this month.
They said alternative options would now be examined for delivering the additional capacity for the Gautrain.
The procurement process was for the acquisition of an additional 12 four-car rolling stock sets and the expansion of the existing depot capacity for the Gautrain.
Listed Murray & Roberts (M&R) last year increased its shareholding in the Bombela Concession Company to 50 percent, with the balance owned by SPG (38 percent) and Calshelf (12 percent).