en.Wedoany.com Reported - Argentina's Railway Infrastructure Administration (ADIF) recently completed the pre-award for the installation of 18 turnouts at five stations along the Belgrano Norte Line, which is planned to be carried out by Argentine engineering firm Induvía. This is one of six infrastructure upgrade projects launched by ADIF for this line. In the procurement of 23 turnouts for another six stations, Wuhu CREC Kigfu Rail Co., Ltd. and China Railway Construction Heavy Industry are competing against a Spanish consortium and an Argentine consortium. The procurement project is still in the evaluation stage, and ADIF has not yet announced the final award result or timeline.
The Belgrano Norte Line is one of seven railway lines in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, starting from Retiro Station in the northeast of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and heading north to Villa Rosa, covering a total length of 54 kilometers with 22 stations. Since its construction and operation in the last century, the line's infrastructure has severely deteriorated.
To address this, ADIF launched six tenders for infrastructure upgrades on this line. To date, only the signaling system project from Boulogne to Monte stations has been finally awarded, the installation of 18 turnouts at five stations has been pre-awarded, and other projects such as turnout procurement and track renewal remain in the evaluation stage.
Among the six tenders, the procurement of 23 turnouts is the only bid involving Chinese enterprises. The competing Spanish and Argentine consortia also participated in the procurement of another 18 turnouts, but none have been awarded yet. Recently, multiple railway project tenders in Argentina have been suspended or delayed, mainly due to fiscal austerity, railway reform adjustments, and financing difficulties. Meanwhile, reforms surrounding railway privatization, concession models, and open access mechanisms are still progressing, requiring reassessment of some tender conditions.
Although the above projects are funded by Argentina's national treasury, the daily operation of the Belgrano Norte Line is still managed by private concessionaire Ferrovías, which has operated the line for over thirty years. Ferrovías' concession contract was originally set to expire in 2018 but has been extended multiple times by successive governments, with the latest extension occurring at the end of last year, extending the contract validity to mid-2027.
The Argentine government stated that this extension aims to coordinate the re-concession process of the two existing private lines, the Belgrano Norte Line and the Urquiza Line, aligning it with the future introduction of private participation mechanisms for lines currently operated by state-owned enterprise SOFSA.
