High Speed Line to Link Madrid-Lisbon

A consortium led by the Portuguese motorway company ,Brisa , has won the bid for the construction of the first section of railway for the new “Bullet Train” connecting Lisbon and Madrid, the Portuguese government announced in a statement released on Saturday.

The consortium, which includes Spanish group Iridium, has submitted it’s bid to construct the 167-kilometre (104-mile) link in Portugal for 1.36 billion euros (1.98 billion dollars) with annual maintenance budget of 12.2 million euros, it said.

It will have the concession for 40 years.

"The high speed train is going to be a reality because we want to build a modern country," Prime Minister Jose Socrates said at a ceremony at Evora, about 130 kilometres east of Lisbon.

The unsuccessful consortium was led by Portugal's Mota-Engil and included the French BTP group's Vinci.

The bullet train will make it possible to travel between the Spanish and Portuguese capitals in under three hours. Construction is expected to begin at the end of 2010 with the line due to open in 2013.

The high-speed links are expected to cost Portugal 7.5 billion euros , including 2.4 billion euros for the Lisbon-Madrid track.