Macau, China, 25 Feb – The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has rejected a temporary injunction lodged by Canada ‘s Bombardier Transportation who lost out in a tender for the government’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, according to a statement by the Transportation Infrastructure Office (GIT) on Thursday.
The statement said that the court notified the office about its ruling yesterday. Bombardier had lodged the injunction on January 28, requesting that the result of the tender and the launch of the project be suspended pending a court ruling on the matter.
According to a notice published in the Official Gazette (BO) last month, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On approved the outcome of the tender for the rolling stock and system for the first phase of the LRT project that was won by Japan ‘s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
The notice also said that the project’s lump sum of 4.68 billion patacas was to be paid in seven instalments over seven years to MHI, starting this year.
The first phase of the light rail that will link the Barrier Gate with the Cotai Strip via Sai Van Bridge is pencilled in to be operational in the first quarter of 2015, according to the schedule announced by the government before the Canadian company had lodged the temporary injunction against the outcome of the tender.
The office had previously announced that Japanese MHI’s lowest bid knocked out competitors Siemens-CCECC Consortium (a German-mainland Chinese joint venture), and Bombardier’s BT-CRBC-LRT Consortium, a joint venture with a mainland Chinese firm.
MHI is partnering Chinese state-owned Chon Tit Construction, which was the main constructor of Sai Van Bridge. MHI also won the tender because its lightweight carriages would bring the least modifications to the bridge’s core structure, GIT had said previously.
Bombardier’s injunction lodged last month led to the sine-die postponement of the contract signing between the government and MHI since the project had to be suspended due to the legal proceedings.
GIT statement said that following the court ruling the government would reschedule the signing of the contract with MHI. However, no date was given. The statement also said that the launch of the project was now being prepared and that the construction phase would start in the middle of this year.
(MacauNews)
