Hradec Králové will announce a new tender for the construction of the bus station

    HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ - The City Hall in Hradec Králové will announce a new tender for the construction of a new bus station worth approximately half a billion crowns in the coming days. The requirements for the selection procedure were approved by the city council on Tuesday. The condition regarding the verification of companies by the National Security Office, which caused the previous tender to be canceled by the antimonopoly office, has been removed. This was stated today by the deputy mayor Josef Malíř.
    The municipality could file an appeal against the office's decision. However, due to the risk of significant delays, the city hall decided on a completely new tender. "If everything goes smoothly, the winner could be announced in May, and construction could start in the summer," said Malíř. If the bus terminal is not completed by the end of 2007, the city would lose a grant of 62 million crowns from EU funds.
    In the first tender, a consortium of companies led by ŽS Brno won, offering a price of 437 million crowns excluding value-added tax. However, Skanska CZ, which finished second with a price of 459 million crowns, appealed the result to the Office for the Protection of Competition.
    The company was unhappy that ŽS Brno allegedly did not meet one of the tender conditions related to the verification by the National Security Office. However, the antimonopoly office stated that this condition should not have been in the tender, and therefore ordered the competition to be canceled.
    The regional city currently has no classic bus station, and its construction is one of the city hall's top priorities. Buses currently depart from provisional stands at the train station and from a nearby panel area.