The Ministry of Finance will again meet representatives of the Tel Aviv light rail franchisee Metro Transport Solutions (MTS) in another attempt to reach agreement on outstanding issues. The parties were due to resolve their differences during last week's marathon negotiations, at Tel Aviv's Carlton Hotel, but failed to do so, and the talks were called off.
The main points of contention between the Ministry of Finance and MTS are the number of milestones at which the ministry will pay MTS the set-up grants, and sharing the cost of pumping water for the project.
The foreign banks lending MTS the money for the project are demanding a substantial increase in the number of milestones, in order to reduce the credit ceiling they will give MTS. The banks also want the Israeli government to share in the cost of pumping and treating water found during the construction of the underground stations. There is reportedly about 100 million cubic meters of water involved, equal to the amount of water produced by Israel's Ashkelon desalination plant in an entire year.
The Ministry of Finance said, "Following last weeks talks between representatives of the Account General and senior executives of the Tel Aviv light rail franchisee, MTS, and following the updated proposal sent by the franchisee last night, it was decided to meet again at the end of the week, to make another attempt to bridge the major differences."
MTS is a consortium comprising Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL), Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd. and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE), China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), and Sociedade de Construcoes Soares da Costa SA of Portugal.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 2, 2010
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