OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 January, 2009, Russian Railways will hold an open tender for leasing the property of 6 washing stations on an investment basis. The tender will be held in accordance with the decisions by the Company’s management taken on 18-19 December 2007, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The tender is being organised by the Centre for Competitive Procurement, a structural unit of Russian Railways. Tenders will be accepted until 12 January 2009.

The investment terms of the lease, which will run for 10 years, are determined separately for each station, but require the future leaseholder to renew the fixed assets and reconstruct and modernise the facilities’ infrastructure.

The tender will be won by the applicants offering the best conditions.

The winners will be required to fulfil a series of conditions, in particular, to continue using the property as designated, to implement the investment project to upgrade the infrastructure and to provide employment for the staff at the depots, either by retaining them or improving the conditions of the existing employment contracts and the collective wage agreement with Russian Railways.

Detailed information on the tender, including a list of assets, the extent of depot repairs which the leaseholder must carry out at the property and the number of employees at the depots are published on the Russian Railways’ official website: www.rzd.ru in the section "Open Tenders" and on the site of the Department for the Management of Russian Railways’ Property: www.property.rzd.ru under the section "Torgi" (Trading).