The plenary session approves the tender for the new contract of the bus station, for an amount of 24.5 million euros

The plenary session of Benidorm City Council has approved today in an extraordinary session, with the vote in favor of the local government and the abstention of the opposition groups, to tender the new contract for the bus station. The contract goes out to tender for a price of 24,516,647.32 euros, which covers the work carried out and not amortized, and for 26 years, 10 months, and 8 days. Bidding will be done in batches. In the first, the terminal, the commercial area of the dock, and the outdoor parking will be included; while the second refers to the shopping center, the hotel, and the underground car park.

The spokesperson for the government team, Lourdes Caselles, explained that "the specifications have been drawn up by municipal technicians" and have "all favorable reports", including the final audit on January 13.

Caselles has pointed out that this agreement complies with a 2012 ruling of the Supreme Court -which ratified one of 2007 of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJ)-, which forced the City Council to put out to tender again the station and all its facilities.

Likewise, he recalled that the file approved today originated in 2015 and that since then "many plenary sessions have been held" around this issue and, at the request of the technicians, up to "five assessments" have been commissioned to determine the cost of the work and the contract.

The spokesperson stressed that these assessments are "the only expense that the City Council has had in the entire process" of finishing the previous contract and bidding for the new one; and highlighted the "hard work" that throughout this time the technicians of the Intervention and Secretariat areas have carried out.

Before the bidding for the contract, it was necessary to resolve the previous concession “by mutual agreement”, thus following the formula advocated by municipal technicians and even the Consell Jurídic Consultiu (CJ) to “favor the interests of the municipality”. To this end, a joint commission was created made up of technicians from the Intervention and Secretary departments and from the concession company, within which the terms of the agreement that governed the termination of the contract were agreed upon by mutual agreement.

Such agreement was signed in March 2022, beginning the process of drafting the specifications of the new contract approved today, and establishes that the commercial Estación de Autobuses de Benidorm SL will continue to provide service until the bidding process is complete and there is a new concessionaire.