Gov’t to select winning offer for 1,300 locomotive supply contracts by month’s end

The government will select the winning bid to supply the Egyptian National Railways with 1,300 railway cars for around EGP 19-20 bn by the end of the month, Minister Hisham Arafat tells Al Ahram. The ministry has narrowed down the competition to two offers from a Chinese company and a Russian-Hungarian consortium. The agreement stipulates that the locomotives meet a 40% domestic component requirement by cooperating with a state-owned entity specialized in heavy industry, such as SEMAF or one of the Military Production Ministry’s factories, according to the minister. On a related note, the National Railway Authority (NRA) received an offer from the US-based transport company RailRunner to supply seven locomotives for cargo transport, authority head Sayed Salem tells Al Mal. Transport Minister Hisham Arafat had met with a delegation from the US company back in February to discuss cooperation on rail transport.