11:06 p.m
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Books – Muhammad Nassar:
Lieutenant General Engineer Kamel Al-Wazir – Minister of Transport witnessed the signing of a contract for the establishment of a workshop for the maintenance of Russian train cars of all kinds in Egypt at the Abu Zaabal Railway Porsche, between the Egyptian National Railways and Transmash Holding International AG (TMH International AG), where the contract was signed by Eng. Muhammad Amer, Chairman of the Railway Authority, and Sergo Kurbanov, Vice President of Transmash, in the presence of Kirill Lipa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Transmash Holding Group.
The Minister of Transport said, in a statement, that this contract aims to establish a new workshop in Abu Zaabal Porsche in cooperation with the Transmash company, which will prepare its own designs with the supply of the necessary equipment for the new workshop to carry out maintenance work in it, as well as the supply of spare parts for a period of 12 years for each vehicle starting from the date Operating the vehicle as well as providing technical support for a period of 12 years by 20 experts from Transmash Holding International AG, in addition to training on the serious overhaul that takes place after operating the vehicle for 18 years with the aim of transferring experience to Egyptian labor so that they can carry out all types of overhauls and maintenance required as well as manufacture Some spare parts are localized at rates starting from 20% of spare parts and up to 60% with the aim of localizing the spare parts industry.
The minister stressed the importance of this contract in conducting the necessary maintenance for the deal of 1,350 railway vehicles, which was previously signed with the Egyptian Railways Authority, where the supply of 725 new vehicles has been completed so far (499 third class with dynamic ventilation and 226 third class with air conditioning). The Hungarian company Jans Mavage will manufacture and supply the rest of the remaining vehicles with the same technology, as this deal is considered the largest in the history of the authority, pointing out that conducting maintenance work with the company will contribute to the continuation of providing the highest levels of service to passengers, and that this comes within the framework of the ministry’s plan to cooperate with international supplier companies For mobile units, as it was previously agreed with the Spanish Talgo to carry out the necessary maintenance for the Talgo trains in the Talgo Porsche sorting workshop, as well as the agreement with the American WAPTEK (former General Electric) to carry out the necessary maintenance for the GE tractors of the Porsche Al-Tebbin and Muhamsheh.
The minister added that it was agreed with Transmash that the establishment of this workshop and cooperation in the field of spare parts production locally would be a strong and important starting point for establishing a joint factory in Abu Zaabal to localize the railway carriage industry to meet the needs of the local market and then start exporting to other countries, especially since Egypt is The beating heart of Africa, the Middle East, and the Arab countries, and that with the localization of industry in Egypt, there will be an industrial base for railway vehicles to launch for these countries, especially with the availability of skilled Egyptian labor, the availability of raw materials, and the promising investment climate in Egypt, in implementation of the directives of the political leadership to localize the transport industry in Egypt, including the industrial Mobile units according to the latest methods in line with international standards through cooperation with major international companies specialized in this field and in implementation of the directives of the political leadership to maximize the participation of the private sector in all projects, including transport projects, as this signature embodies cooperation between the state represented by the Railways Authority and the international private sector Represented by Transmash Holding International AG.
The minister pointed out that this signing is the third of its kind with international companies specialized in the field of localizing the mobile units industry in Egypt, after a contract to localize 320 metros with 40 trains, which was previously signed with the Hyundai Rotem/Nirc consortium to localize the metro trains industry in order to meet the expected increase in metros. The number of passengers during the coming years, as well as providing the highest levels of service to the public, as well as the cooperation protocol that was signed to study the establishment of an Egyptian factory for the manufacture of railway passenger cars between the National Authority for Egyptian Railways and the Egyptian National Company for Railway Industry (NERIC) in order to localize the railway car industry Railways in Egypt, where the protocol included the manufacture of 500 various railway passenger cars (100 first-class air-conditioned cars – 200 air-conditioned second-class cars – 200 advanced third-class cars) as a first stage out of a total of 1000 railway cars planned to be manufactured locally.
For his part, Kirill Lipa, Chairman of the Transmash Group, stressed the importance of this contract in carrying out the required maintenance and overhauls for the vehicle deal signed between the two sides through this workshop, which will witness the presence of 20 experts specialized in the field of maintenance, and where this important project will be supervised by Eranst Jorg, who supervised the The establishment of a huge workshop in Germany to maintain the trains of the German company Siemens, adding that joint cooperation will take place to localize the necessary spare parts industry in Egypt, as well as cooperation in setting up a factory to manufacture railway cars to meet the needs of the Egyptian market and then export abroad, stressing that this was a directive from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President Al-Gomhoria during the activities of signing contracts for the vehicle deal to settle this important industry in Egypt.
