Only one bid for 60 new trolleybuses in Belgrade: union says the tender will collapse

Only one bid arrived in the tender launched by Belgrade's city transport company GSP for the purchase of 60 new trolleybuses — an offer from SDT Group, the company's "Centar" union announced. The bid covers vehicles with a 20-kilometre autonomous range and is valued at 53.9 million euros.

According to the union, whose representatives attended the opening of bids at the company's headquarters, the offer was submitted without secured financial leasing. No bidder was able to arrange such leasing because of GSP's heavy debts, which is why the tender is expected to fail, Beta reports.

Union president Ivan Banković said that from the moment the tender was announced, the union had warned GSP's management and the Belgrade city administration that the procurement could not go ahead without secured funding and guarantees from the City. He said they were told at the time that they were wrong, but that it has now been demonstrated that no new vehicle can be procured through the City of Belgrade — at a point when the largest city-owned company is buried in debt and suppliers are halting cooperation and threatening lawsuits and enforced collection.

Banković added that an emergency meeting of the union, a citizens' association and GSP employees had been held, at which it was decided to launch an initiative for the trolleybus purchase to be carried out directly by republic-level authorities — following the model used to procure 50 electric buses for the EXPO project.

He said the City of Belgrade and GSP are in a state in which they can no longer buy a single bus or trolleybus, attributing this to poor management, damaging decisions and the growing transfer of work to private operators over the past three years, which has driven costs to a level the city budget can no longer service.