Railway issues selective tender to manage 100 tractors’ purchase

CAIRO – 21 March 2018: Egyptian Railways Authority will issue a selective tender between four international consulting offices, in order to select one of them to prepare the advisory work for the purchase of 100 new tractors funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Chairman of the Authority Sayed Salem said.

Salem noted that the deadline for receiving technical and financial offers from the consulting offices participating in the tender is April 15.

“The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) will finance the purchase of the 100 new tractors at a total cost of €290 million,” Salem added.
The Railway Authority signed an agreement earlier with EBRD to cover the cost of the tractors as a soft loan.

Upon this agreement, Salem said that the tender issuance will jointly take place between EBRD and the Authority.

He stated that the new 100 tractors will be added to the current fleet of new Authority’s tractors, alongside the 100 new tractors recently contracted with General Electric within the 181-tractor deal.

This deal included the manufacture and supply of 100 new tractors, as well as the rehabilitation of 81 out-of-service tractors, at a cost of up to $575 million, funded by the Canadian Export Bank.

The new 100 tractors funded by EBRD will be manufactured in two and a half to three years, Salem noted.

Meanwhile, the manufacture and supply of the other 100 new tractors contracted with General Electric will be completed within three and a half years.

Salem clarified that the new tractors will help to increase the volume of transferred goods to 25 million tons in 2022, as compared to the current 4.5 million tons.

Salem stated earlier this month that the Egyptian Railways Authority will manufacture 50 percent of the locally contracted 1,300 train vehicles through a joint agreement with the Arab Organization for Industrialization.

“Before the end of June, the technical examination of the advanced offers for these vehicles will be completed, in addition to the announcement of the winning bid,” Salem added.

In February, Minister of Transport, Hesham Arafat, said that a technical committee has been formed to examine the offers for manufacturing 1300 train vehicles.
Arafat noted earlier that the railway networks’ infrastructure has aged, especially the signaling systems and tracks, and that they require upgrading.

He said that the ministry is making the effort to improve the basic rail infrastructure by constructing, investing and operating, but a huge amount of money is needed.

The authority recorded an actual loss of LE 6.3 billion by the end of fiscal year 2016/2017, as compared to the LE 4.3 billion estimated for the same year.
Meanwhile, the revenues of the Railway Authority recorded LE 190.7 million ($10.8 million) in January 2018, compared to LE 164.1 million in January 2017, and LE 168.7 million in December 2017.

The Egyptian Railways Authority’s budget in fiscal year 2017/18 is LE 3 billion.
In a statement issued in June, Arafat said that a budget of LE 9 billion is needed to continue the development projects.