Egypt seeks partnership with French companies to establish 2 locomotive factories

Minister of Transport Kamel al-Wazir and French Ambassador to Cairo Marc Barety met Tuesday so as the former displayed investment opportunities such as establishing a factory at Abou Zaabal for the manufacturing of passenger railcars, and another to produce train wheel flanges.

Other opportunities include partnering up with one of the French companies to develop, manage, and operate the existing locomotive maintenance workshops of Abou Zaabal and Kom Abou Rady.

The aspired for public-private partnership in those workshops is within a plan to increase their productivity.

The two parties also discussed updates on Egypt’s agreed purchase of 55 air-conditioned railcars for the first metro line from Alstom, which will carry out maintenance for the units for eight years through a workshop it will establish in the country.

The minister and the ambassador similarly conferred over Egypt’s requested acquisition of funding to buy locomotives for the sixth line. Thus, Minister Kamel presented the developments of the ongoing studies needed to implement the project and get financing.

They further tackled the under-progress implementation of the monorail project, extending on 98.5 kilometers, and that is executed by a consortium comprising Alstom, Orascom, and the Arab Contractors.

The talks equally covered delivering training to technicians, engineers, and drivers working at the metro, through both sending some batches to France, and bringing in French experts.

The minister further proposed cooperation in doubling the railway line between Sherbin/Kafr El Sheikh/Qelin and Tanta/Mansoura/Damietta, all located in Delta.

In 2021, Egypt and Alstom signed a contract for the delivery of 55 air-conditioned trains to be operated on the first line of Cairo’s underground metro, and that included maintenance operations for eight years.

The metro’s first line was the first underground metro in Africa and the Middle East as it started operation in 1987.