Budimex-Ferrovial backed for new airport terminal

The tender commission of national airport operator PPL has suggested the selection of the offer filed by the Budimex-Ferrovial consortium for c onstruction of Terminal 2 at Warsaw's Okecie airport. The final decision on the choice of contractor is to be taken in July and the contract should be signed in September. Budimex-Ferrovial has offered the lowest price for construction of the terminal with an annual capacity of 6.5 million pa ssengers. The second lowest offer was that of Hochtief AG Hochtief Polska which was more than 30% higher than the Budimex offer. Strabag entered the highest bid. The offer submitted by Hochtief was rejected by the commission as the German company failed to produce the appropriate documents. Budimex's management is highly satisfied with the commission's choice, "This is a very prestigious contract," said president Marek Michalowski, "Ferrovial is interested in launching its operations on the Central and Eastern European market and this will be the first contract in this part of Europe". St rabag's director Jerzy Binkiewicz does not exclude the possibility of filing a protest against the tender commission's decision. In his opinion it is impossible to build a terminal which would meet all the requirements for the money Budimex expects to receive for the contract. He added that Budim ex-Ferrovial may in the future spend more on the construction of the t erminal than stated in the tender offer, or will construct a sub-standard development. (Rzeczpospolita, June 29-30, p. B3) A.Z.