Egypt has suggested that Transmashholding-Hungary, a Russian-Hungarian railway car building consortium, should engage in the construction of a railcar manufacturing plant in Egypt, Egyptian Assistant Transport Minister Amr Shaat told Sputnik.
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) Egypt has suggested that Transmashholding-Hungary, a Russian-Hungarian railway car building consortium, should engage in the construction of a railcar manufacturing plant in Egypt, Egyptian Assistant Transport Minister Amr Shaat told Sputnik.
In late September, the consortium and Egyptian National Railways (ENR) signed a five-year contract on the delivery of 1,300 passenger cars to Egypt. Transmashholding-Hungary was awarded the contract after winning the bid called by ENR.
"Of course, immediately after the Russian consortium won the bid, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi ... called on the partners to go beyond this project and look into the future, to become Egypt's strategic partner ... The president urged them to consider building a railcar manufacturing plant on the Egyptian territory. And only after this contract is fulfilled, this plant could become a place for further building of railroad cars both for the Egyptian market and for third countries," Shaat said.
Shaat said the project could be implemented either in the Suez Canal economic zone or in any other place, adding that talks were underway with the Egyptian Ministry of Defense and Military Construction on the possible building of the plant in Egypt.
The assistant minister added that 30 passenger cars would be delivered to Egypt under the contract with the consortium.
"Under the contract, we agreed that 14 months after it takes effect, the first batch � 30 railway cars � will be delivered. For Egypt, 30 cars mean three rolling stocks. Then 30 cars will be delivered each month, three new trains each months starting from the moment the contract comes into force," Shaat said adding that the contract was expected to take effect within the next few months.
According to the official website of Transmashholding, the deal has become the largest one in the ENR history and the overall cost of the cars that will be built under the contract exceeds $1 billion.
