We advised Lietuvos geležinkeliai ‒ the largest state-owned railway company in the Baltics ‒ on tender procedures and signing a purchase contract to electrify a major railway infrastructure corridor in Lithuania. Electrification will affect a strategically important railway line linking Klaipėda port, the main cargo and logistics centre in Lithuania, with Vilnius and Belarus. This is one of the biggest and most innovative railway infrastructure projects in Lithuanian history.
A significant step in improving the quality of Lithuanian railway infrastructure
The winners of the international public procurement tender for electrification are Spanish engineering companies Elecnor and Instalaciones Inabensa, partners in the project.
Says Mantas Bartuška, CEO of Lietuvos geležinkeliai: “For this project of particular importance we have managed to attract one of the best European railway infrastructure construction companies with extensive experience. After purposeful and intensive negotiations we received a highly competitive offer. Once the project is completed the quality of Lithuanian railway infrastructure will rise to a totally different level, creating a new standard enabling us to significantly reduce the costs of transporting both cargo and passengers.”
The economic and ecological value of the project will exceed EUR 1 billion
Project implementation will cost EUR 360 million, but the benefits will exceed EUR 1 billion.
Electrification will have a significant ecological advantage – every year, diesel consumption on the railway will be reduced by 46 thousand tons and environmental emissions by 150 thousand tons. The socio-economic advantage of reducing air pollution will save some EUR 700 million during the whole exploitation period.
Our services and team
This project lasted almost a year and required deep expertise in terms of public procurement and infrastructure legal matters. This was one of the biggest projects for the Sorainen Public procurement team in 2019, gathering experts from different practice areas.
We assisted the client in intensive negotiations, advised on public procurement, FIDIC contracts, territorial planning, land acquisition, traffic management and other railway-related legal issues. The team was led by partner Laurynas Lukošiūnas and included counsel Asta Augutytė-Rapkevičienė plus senior associates Žilvinas Briedis and Inga Macijauskaitė.
