Egyptian National Railways (ENR) and Germany’s Siemens signed, Monday, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation in projects developing the electrification systems for the signs of a number of major railways lines, according to Minister of Transport Hany Dahi.
Dahi said, in a press statement, that the MoU’s signing “comes as part of developing the railway facility and the strategic plan for developing its infrastructure, in order to achieve the goals of upgrading the old infrastructure and develop all its elements, on top of which are the elements related to providing the highest level safety for passengers”.
“The MoU includes modernising and developing the signs systems for a number of major railway lines,” said Dahi. It also includes developing the signs electrification systems for the Luxor-Aswan, Tanta-Mansoura- Damietta, and the Bahariya Oasis lines.
The MoU was signed by Ahmed Hamed, Chief of the Egyptian National Railway, representing the Ministry of Transport, in the presence of Hani Azer, the expert in the field of railways and tunnels, and Jörg Scheifler, CEO of the Infrastructure and Cities Sector for Siemens Middle East, in addition to a number of top officials from the Ministry of Transport.
Dahi said the two parties have agreed that, during the designated period, they will present details of the technical and financial offer, which will be fully funded by the German side.
The manual lighting system used by the Railway Authority in the signal system has resulted in accidents that have caused the death of many citizens. Moreover, the national railway network that extends a distance of 5,000 km across the country suffers from extreme negligence and poor maintenance.
