Consolidated Contractors Company head Mostafa al-Hassan has said that the company will begin manufacturing new trains for the Egyptian railway system, in partnership with a Chinese company.
Hassan told the Anadolu news agency that his company will establish a factory with preliminary investments estimated at US$100 billion. He added that the partner company, China Real, has extensive prior experience in the train manufacturing sector, and that the trains will conform to international standards.
The company plans to replace old trains in the Egyptian railway system with new ones, as part of a government plan attempting to reduce train accidents, he said.
Train lines are also expected to be extended to Sinai governorate, he added. The network will link the Western and Eastern deserts and the new valley.
Egyptian National Railways is one of the largest economic institutions in the Arab World as well as the largest in terms of passenger and goods transportation.
However, the railways have seen an increasing number of fatalities that many attribute to negligence, aging equipment and lax enforcement of laws. At least 52 people, almost all of them schoolchildren, were killed Saturday after a train collided with a school bus near Assiut.
