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Central Europe
September 28, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Russian-Hungarian consortium inks €1bn rolling stock deal in Egypt
Levente Szilagyi in Budapest
Transmashholding-Hungary, a Russian-Hun- garian consortium, is to deliver 1,300 passenger carriages to Egyptian National Railways (ENR) for €1bn, according to the contract signed on Sep- tember 26.
The ENR is planning to renovate the countryʼs old railway system by 2022 for a total cost of €2.6bn. The Egyptian cabinet described the contract as "the largest deal in the history of the Egyptian railways." The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Transport Minister Hesham Arafat, as well as the ambassadors of Russia and Hungary.
Hungarian manufacturing giant Ganz, which has established a strong presence in Egypt over the last 60-70 years, was among the contenders and for long it enjoyed the government’s backing. However, the Hungarian government began to
adopt a Russian proposal that Transmashholding, the largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment in Russia, and Dunakeszi Jármujavíto should cooperate on the project after the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin
and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in February 2016.
Transmashholding-Hungary won the five-year contract in a tender called in 2017, beating bids by companies from China, Italy, India, and Romania. The Hungarian member of the consortium will
be a manufacturing and financial partner in the project.
Half of the awarded quantity is expected to be manufactured at the Hungarian base of Dunakeszi Jármujavíto, it added. The project is supported by the governments of Egypt, Hungary, and Russia, Transmashholding said.