Government seeks to make FX available for trains
The Ismail Government has train on the brain: The cabinet’s economic group discussed making FX available to overhaul, maintain and repair locomotives for Egypt’s railways. The Transport Ministry and CBE Governor Tarek Amer were tasked with funneling FX to a program to buy locomotives, AMAY reports. This comes as the Transport Minister is also set to sign an MoU with General Electric to manufacture and supply 100 locomotives. The Transport Ministry is also looking to contract a supplier for 64 trains for the Cairo Metro Line 3, according to Amwal Al Ghad. Transport Minister Galal Saeed said the last of 20 air-conditioned trains for Line 1 were supplied yesterday. And if that wasn’t enough, Egyptian National Railways received 11 new locomotives from the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) at a total cost of EGP 2.1 bn, AOI chief Abdel Aziz Seifeldin told Amwal Al Ghad. AOI was able to increase the domestic component in train manufacturing to 50%, Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil said.