Okecie Airport development may begin in September

The results of the tender for the development of Warsaw's Okecie Airport, estimated to be worth between $350 million and $370 million, will be announced by May at the latest, Bogdan Chudziak, Okecie's development director, has said. Three companies have been chosen to submit final offers by the mid March deadline, namely Ferrovail Agroman-Budimex, Hochtieg AG and Strabag. Chudziak explained that the deadline was extended by two months partially in order to allow time to hear the protests from the companies whose offers had been rejected in the first round of bidding. Officials with the Polish Airports Authority (PPL) say an agreement may be signed with the company winning the tender as early as June and building work could be started in September. PPL has also announced that it is holding talks with a number of banks interested in financing the airport development project, among them the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, CitiGroup and Bank of America. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B5; Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 3; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 21) P.W.