VILNIUS - Four foreign locomotive manufacturers are said to be bidding for a contract to supply 34 new locomotives to Lithuania's national railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways).
The estimated value of the contract is 300 million litas - 400 million litas (87 million euros). Lina Gabartiene, the company's spokeswoman, said that financial offers on the locomotive supply deal would be opened after the evaluation of technical proposals.
The European Investment Bank is expected to provide one-third of the financing for the project, while Lithuanian Railways will contribute the remaining funds.
Currently owning a fleet of over 250 old locomotives, LG expects to purchase 34 freight locomotives by 2008 in order to enhance competitiveness in the freight and passenger transportation market.
Another 30 locomotives will be modernized.
The company, which is 100 percent state-owned, released preliminary figures showing that it has already handled 18.5 million tons of freight in the first five months of this year, up from 16.5 million tons during the same period last year.
After recording an 18.6 percent increase to 43.5 million tons in annual freight traffic in 2003 - a record high level since the country regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 - Lithuanian Railways has already reported a 12.1 percent increase from January to May this year in year-on-year terms.
International freight volumes grew by 12.2 percent to 16.6 million tons, while domestic traffic rose by 11.4 percent to 1.95 million tons.
In 2003, the rail company posted a net profit of 14.1 million litas - up from 5.4 million litas in 2002 - and posted a 18.9 percent growth in annual revenues to 915 million litas.
