(AFP File Photo)
The Public Transport Authority signed a contract with the Ukrainian City Transport Group for the supply of 290 natural gas-fuelled buses in the Cairo Governorate with fund of EGP 500m.
Cairo Governor Galal Mustafa El-Saeed said the contract comes in the context of the plan to develop the Public Transport Authority’s fleet. The contract includes developing the authority’s buses, besides gaining new 290 environmentally friendly buses.
El-Saeed added the Ukranian company has provided a seven-year guarantee for the buses, regarding the provision of required spare parts and maintenance during the warranty period.
El-Saeed noted that buses will be put together by Egypt’s Ghabbour Auto Company.
He stressed that all the IPO bids, tenders procedures, and technical examinations were reviewed with the help of the armed forces, represented in vehicles management.
The governor said the first batch of buses will be delivered after four months, with all buses delivered within a year of the contract’s signing.
The Public Transport Authority aims to increase the number of buses to increase the services provided to support the existing bus lines or create new lines linking Cairo and the new cities surrounding it.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, Cairo Governor Galal Mustafa El-Saeed, Public Transport Authority Chairman Rizk Ali, City Transport Group CEO Igor Churkin and the Ukraine’s ambassador in Cairo Hennadiy Latte, attended the signing ceremony.
By the end of 2014, Egypt received 200 buses as the first batch of 600 from the UAE as part of a UAE-grant fund amounting to EGP 630m.
Egypt’s armed forces offered an international tender for the supply of 400 buses fuelled by natural gas for the benefit of the Public Transport Authority with a cost of EGP 450m, financed by the National Investment Bank (NIB).
Egypt has been witnessing a crisis in the transportation and energy sectors. The government launched a project converting cars to from fossil fuels to natural gas to achieve a rationalisation in consumption, whilst also easing burdens on the national budget. It was also to encourage a reliance on an environmental, clean fuel. The project aims to convert 2,000 new cars to work with natural gas, with a fund of EGP 10m.
