Gov't okays tender for transport of troops

Prague, Feb 8 (CTK) - The Czech government yesterday approved the Defence Ministry's plan to put up a tender for the transport of soldiers to NATO and EU operations worth 500 million crowns at least but enabling the state to spend up to four billion crowns within the planned four-year framework contract.

The winner of the tender is expected to transport soldiers, along with military equipment, at a distance of up to 15,000 kilometres.

The Defence Ministry says the military need not use the transport capacity that the contract will ensure.

"The service need not be provided or may be provided only partly over the period of the framework contract's validity," the ministry said in a document on the planned procurement, which the cabinet approved yesterday.

The Czech military's use of the "strategic transport" capacity will depend on whether NATO or the EU will join foreign military operations.

There are also other ways Czech military can use to transport its troops. As a result, it would use the extra transport capacity within the planned new contract only if it exhausts all other transport alternatives.

The framework contract is to shorten the usual time for which soldiers must wait before being able to use "a strategic transport capacity" if no framework contract was signed.

Under the planned contract, "the transfer will be ensured at a distance of up to 15,000 kilometres. Based on the [military's] requirements, the transport may be ensured by air, road, rail, maritime or combined," the ministry says in the document.

The state will pay only for the transport that will really take place.

($1=19.070 crowns)