Egypt inks $1.13bln funding deal for 1,300 train cars

Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian National Railways (ENR) concluded a EUR 1.016 billion agreement with the Hungarian Export-Import Bank Plc. (Eximbank) and State Specialized Russian Export- Import Bank.

The deal covers the import and manufacture of 1,300 new railroad cars by the largest Russian company on the railway machine-building market, Transmashholding, which represents Russian-Hungarian alliance, the Egyptian transport minister, Kamel El-Wazir, said in a statement on Thursday.

He pointed out that the first round of imports will include 60 new passenger cars to be delivered by March 2020, with total imports amounting to 180 cars by the end of June 2020.

The first manufactured passenger car is in Hungary at the moment, to be joined by the second one before undergoing testing procedures to obtain the CE marking. They will land in Egypt later on, El-Wazir noted.

The signing of the material financing agreement is a key step in the procedures of the largest deal in the ENR history, he revealed.

Moreover, Egypt’s minister of finance, Mohamed Maait, the Hungarian Ambassador to Cairo, Péter Kveck, and the Russian Embassy in Cairo’s charge d'affaires attended the signing ceremony.

Furthermore, the contract consists of 800 air-conditioned passenger cars (500 third-class air-conditioned cars, a first-of-its-kind service in Egypt; 180 second-class air-conditioned cars; 90 first-class air-conditioned cars; and 30 air-conditioned buffet cars) as well as 500 third-class cars with dynamic ventilation system.

Translated By: Amal A. Wahaab