The pre-bidding phase included a 15-day consultation period with suppliers, which began when preliminary bidding documentation was issued on January 14.
Suppliers gave their suggestions for possible inclusion in the tender at a public meeting held by the General Directorate of Railway and Multimodal Transport (DGTFyM) in Mexico City on January 28, which was attended by representatives of 14 prospective bidders as well as Mr Humberto Diaz Santillana, the social witness selected by the Ministry of Public Services to monitor the contest. Eight companies have now been asked to submit their suggestions in writing.
On January 23 Mexico's Federal Competition Commission (COFECE) made 23 recommendations based on the pre-bidding documents, which are intended to encourage greater participation and make the tender more open.
SCT says that in order to give DGTFyM sufficient time to analyse to contributions from the eight companies, along with 21 of the 23 recommendations made by the COFECE, it has postponed the publication date for final bidding documents.
Last November the government annulled the tender just days after SCT announced that it would sign a contract with the sole bidder, a consortium of Chinese and Mexican companies.
