A $600 million deal with a Chinese shipyard will bring the cost of replacing the Cook Strait ferries to $1.86 billion, the Government has confirmed.
Rail Minister Winston Peters was at CentrePort in Wellington on Wednesday afternoon to confirm, nearly two years after the Government cancelled the previous iRex project due to cost blow outs, Ferry Holdings Limited had agreed to purchase two ferries from Guangzhou Shipyard International for $596 million.
The total cost of replacing the KiwiRail-run Interislander ferries will now be $1.86b, with the central government contribution being less than the $1.7b it had allocated for the project.
