The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) in Prague has issued a preliminary injunction to the city’s transport company, prohibiting the contract with the winning bidder for the second phase of the new Metro D line construction. A spokesperson for the office, Martin Švanda, made this known on Tuesday. He emphasized that the preliminary injunction does not pre-empt the outcome of the administrative proceedings, which are still ongoing.
The server Seznam Zprávy first brought attention to the issuance of the preliminary injunction. “In each of the three administrative proceedings the office is conducting concerning the next phase of the Metro D construction, a preliminary injunction has been issued,” said Švanda. The preliminary injunction attaches to the legal blocking period, which forbids the contractor to conclude a contract for 60 days from the delivery of the proposal.
The company, Subterra from the Metrostav group, won the thirty billion contract in September. Before this, the transport company excluded a two billion cheaper offer submitted by an association around Porr and Vinci, stating they did not meet the tender conditions.
The Metrostav company was the first to challenge the tender, and the administrative proceedings have not yet ended. The association around the companies Porr and Vinci challenged the tender with two proposals to the ÚOHS, and the Strabag company also filed a motion.
The construction of the new line of the Prague metro began last year, with a kilometer-long section between the Pankrác and Olbrachtova stations currently under construction. The section from Olbrachtova to Nové Dvory, the subject of the disputed tender, is next in line. The last section to be built will be from Nové Dvory to Depo Písnice.