Tender for Okecie expansion and renovation annulled

The results of the first stage of the tender for the construction of a new passenger terminal at Warsaw's Okecie Airport have been annulled by the temporary director of the State Airport Company (PPL), Mieczyslaw Nowak, as announced on Friday. Two firms that failed to make the short list, Skanska and Bilfinger & Berger, had earlier filed a protest with the PPL tender commission, demanding that the tender be invalidated. In late April Nowak confirmed the selection of German Hochtief AG and French Bouygues Batiment SA to the second stage of the tender for the design and construction of Terminal 2, as well as the renovation and modernization of Terminal 1. Last year seven firms entered the tender, which was supposed to be completed by June of this year. The new terminal, capable of handling 6.5 million passengers annually, is planned for completion in early 2005, at a cost estimated at $300 million. (Rzeczpospolita, May 19-20)