Salini: “The railway? I’ll finish it”

The Arcisate Stabio railway, whose construction has stopped, needs a manufacturer to complete the work. RFI has fired ICS of the Salini group, that had built 45% of the track but has had conflicts regarding the cost of the work. RFI has made a new contract, worth 130 million, but no company has responded. RFI states that it will entrust the task to a new company with a different procedure, and confirmed that the work will start in July. But in the meantime the  Claudio Salini Group is back and is a candidate, in turn, to complete the work. The latter is the news today.

The return of Salini
It all seems a paradox when it comes to this railway: the work unfinished, the disposal of rocks with arsenic, the dismissal of the ICS by RFI and th eSwiss section which is already in operation, however, the owner of the ICS will try again. “Taking note of the outcome of the tender called by RFI, we are willing to resume from the month of June the work of the Italian section Arcisate Stabio to complete the contract and put an end to the hardships that the inhabitants of this area have been forced to live many years,” said a statement.

History
Last 8th January there was the agreed termination of the contract by the RFI Group to the ICS spa, for the failure to agree on extra charges.

In March RFI launched a new tender that Salini challenges because, it states, was made “with access requirements completely different compared to the first call.” Oversimplifying, Salini claims they was expelled from the work because they asked for extra money, and that money, in the end, the RFI will spend the same but entrusting the work to another company.

ICS have attacked this new choice, and sent a report to the anti-corruption authority. The race to complete the railway appears to be deserted. Hence the proposal of engineer Claudio Salini to renew the agreement with RFI and start with the work in order to complete the works and re-activate the line in 24 months.