Russia's Ministry of Transport has selected the Highway Two Capitals consortium as preferred bidder to develop the 543 km - 684 km section of Moscow - St. Petersburg toll road.

The winning consortium submitted a total investment bid of RUB59.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) for sections 7 and 8 of the M11 Moscow-St Petersburg highway.

Teams competing in the tender process were:

• Stolichniy Tract OJSC: RDIF, Gazprombank and the Macquarie Group Foundation - RUB53.9 billion (US$1.5 billion)

• Roads Construction Corporation LLC: Sacyr Concesiones SL, Autobahn OJSC and Khanty-Mansiysk DorStroi OJSC  - RUB62 billion (US$1.7 billion)

In November 2013, four teams were qualified to bid for the project. Only Corsan Corviam (a member of the Groupo Isolux Corsan, SA) finally missed out to bid.

The signature of the concession agreement is to take place on or before July, 1 2014.

Total construction costs amount to RUB84.4 billion (US$2.65 billion). The concedent and the concessionaire will share construction costs in the proportion of 75 to 25 per cent, respectively. Total concessionaire's investments amount to: RUB24.4 billion (US$768 million).

The concedent will also pay availability payments to the concessionaire during the operation of the road.

The construction of the new M-11 highway started with the sections closest to areas with the highest transport loads. As of today, construction works are underway on the 15-58km section of the road following the signing of a concession agreement in line with the Russian Federation Government Decree No. 511-r dated 24 April 2007. In late 2011, a long-term investment agreement was signed with a view to building the 258-334km road section (a bypass of the city of Vyshny Volochyok) on the basis of a life cycle contract scheme.