DPP (Dopravního podniku hl. m. Prahy - Prague Public Transit Company) has announced again the consortium lead by Subterra as the winner for the construction of Prague's Metro D second section.

Some background

About one year ago, Subterra was also then announced as the winner after an eventful bidding process where Austria's PORR was disqualified for not complying with the tender requirements. Another contender, the Strabag group was eliminated for too high price. Soon afterwards, DPP had filed a criminal complaint for blackmailing of tender evaluation committee. DPP press release said (in Czech) the ' The unknown perpetrator, using a fictitious name, tried to use coercion and threats to negotiate an advantage in favor of the association led by the company PORR in the evaluation of submitted bids'. Then a director of Vinci Group alleged that the tender process was non-transparent. There were claims that the funding of the whole project by the European Investment Bank was at risk, which DPP has denied with a press release and DPP director asked "If both companies PORR and Vinci say that the entire tender for the construction contractor of the second section of metro D is non-transparent, we do not understand why they withdrew their proposals from ÚOHS (Office for the Protection of Economic Competition) and did not continue with them...".

Then about 5 months ago, a re-evaluation of the submitted bids has started which excluded the companies disqualified PORR, Vinci & Marti in the original tender.

Latest DPP press release (translated from original Czech);

The DPP re-evaluated the suppliers' bids and selected the construction contractor for the second section of metro D

Prague, August 6, 2024 – The Board of Directors of the Transport Company hl. City of Prague (DPP) today, based on the unanimous recommendation of the evaluation committee, re-selected the contractor for the construction of the second section of metro D from Olbrachtova station to Nové Dvory station. The selection was preceded by a detailed re-evaluation of the offers in the area of ​​references and an assessment of qualifications taking into account new facts discovered on the basis of objections to the references submitted by the complainant to the previous decision of the DPP. The winner of the public contract was a group of companies led by Subterra.

The DPP dealt with the bids for the contractor for the construction of the second stage of metro D for the second time, due to the submission of objections by the unsuccessful participant against the decision of the DPP board of directors from September 2023, specifically to some references submitted by the previous winner. "The DPP secured new documents and information regarding the new facts that arose from the objections filed. Based on an extremely detailed examination of suppliers' bids and other expert and legal analyses, he then made a new decision in the DPP case," says Petr Witowski, Chairman of the Board and CEO of DPP.

The winner of the public contract and the best rated offer with a bid price of 29,988,857,254.38 crowns without VAT was unanimously evaluated as the bid submitted by the association of companies led by Subterra. The bid submitted by the association led by STRABAG was the second evaluated.

In connection with this procurement procedure, the latest procedure is still ongoing before the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition, in which the office deals with the exclusion of the association led by PORR from the public contract due to non-fulfillment of the procurement conditions.

The press release in its original form in Czech language: https://www.dpp.cz/spolecnost/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/detail/278_2712-dpp-znovu-vyhodnotil-nabidky-dodavatelu-a-vybral-zhotovitele-stavby-druheho-useku-metra-d