Egypt to Import Chinese Train Carriages Worth $500 mn

Egypt will import 760 train carriages worth some $450-500 million from China in an attempt to develop the railway sector, state daily Al-Ahram reported, citing the minister of transportation. Speaking at a press conference, Hatem Abdel-Latif said that around 80 percent of the country’s train carriages are dilapidated and need to be improved.

Abdel-Latif pointed out that Egypt has allocated around LE15.7 billion (approx. $2.2 billion) for the 5,000 kilometres of railway track nationwide during the current budget, which will end by 30 June, a 20 percent rise from the last fiscal year. He added that the government is working on converting crossing signals from manual to digital as part of the development plan.

Egypt has seen numerous train disasters since the early 1990's with hundreds of casualties. Five major train crashes have taken place since President Morsi was elected last June; the latest was in January in Giza’s suburb Badrashin, when 19 people were killed and 120 injured.