Transport Minister witnesses agreement between ENR, Orascom Construction, Thales

CAIRO – 3 September 2023: Egyptian National Railway (ENR) signed a 5-year maintenance contract with Orascom Construction and Thales. This cooperation was witnessed by Minister of Transport Kamel Al Wazir. The contract aims to develop and maintain the Beni Suif railway system.

The development of the railway signal systems will minimize the duration between trains, and boosting the capacity of the network by increasing the number of trips per day.

Al Wazir confirmed the importance of this contract, which gives the chance to have a modern electronic signal system (SIL 4) instead of the current electric railway system in order to achieve the highest safety and security rates.

The contract aims to localize each component that could be manufactured in Egypt, such as cables, rail rods and switches to reduce dependence on imports and foreign currency. The transport minister added that the project consists of 17 signal towers and 65 level crossing.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi gave directions for a new package of incentives to support local strategic industrial projects. The incentives package includes exempting projects that target strategic industries from all types of taxes, except the value-added tax, for 5 years.

The incentives package also includes extending the golden license for projects aimed at advancing local industrialization.