A consortium comprising Turkish companies Alsim Alarko and Makyol has won a tender for upgrading a section of Romanian railways with an offer of 2.85 billion lei ($687 million/605 million euro), Romanian railway infrastructure operator CFR said, according to SeeNews.

Some 82% of the funding necessary for the rehabilitation of 28.2 km of railroad between Apata and Cata, part of Brasov-Sighisoara section, is provided from non-reimbursable EU funds under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, CFR said in a statement.

The remainder will be provided from the state budget. The procurement contract will be signed by both parties following the legal appeal period for the tender. The sub-section is part of the Rhine – Danube Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

The project aims to upgrade railway infrastructure and superstructure in those sections to allow for a maximum travel speed of 160 km/h of passenger trains and 120 km/h for freight trains, CFR added. Rehabilitation works will be carried out on bridges, underpasses and tunnels.

Also, civil works will be carried out in several railway stations including signalling, optics fiber and electrical installations. This is the biggest modernization project out of seven for which CFR has obtained total financing of 1.13 billion euro ($1.28 billion) under the CEF mechanism in April 2018.