VILNIUS - A major procurement of new locomotives for Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) remains mired in a legal dispute, throwing a question mark over the railway operator's much-needed improvement plans.
Last month the Vilnius District Court froze the 100 million euro tender on the purchase of new locomotives after France's Alstom, one of bidders in the tenders, lodged a complaint against the preliminary tender results.
Germany's Siemens was the reported winner of the tender, while Alstom came in second and Canada's Bombardier was third.
As Viktoras Karaliunas, Alstom's representative in Lithuania, was quoted as saying, "In our opinion, the commission did not conduct a truly thorough evaluation of all bids and failed to consider all technical terms."
In his words, the commission provided Alstom neither with bid comparison tables nor with explanations, causing doubts about the commission's decision. "We think that the price offered by Alstom was lower," Karaliunas told the Baltic News Service last month.
Lithuanian Railways announced the locomotive procurement tender with the help of European Investment Bank funds last year.
Meanwhile, the company stated this week that revenues grew 10.4 percent last year to a new record of 1 billion litas (290 million euros). Albertas Simenas, director of expansion, was quoted as saying that this was the company's best top-line performance since the country gained independence. The operator also recorded a 4.7 percent increase in freight volumes in 2004, reaching 45.5 million tons.
