Azerbaijan Railways to buy 12 Alstom trains
BAKU. Nov 27 (Interfax) - CJSC Azerbaijan Railways (AZD) plans to buy 12 Alstom trains, AZD told Interfax.
"Discussions are being held with the company on technical issues linked with the purchase of 12 dual-mode passenger locomotives and the establishment of a repair center on the basis of the Baku and Ganja locomotive depot," an AZD spokesman said. A contract was signed earlier with Alstom to acquire 50 freight locomotives, he added.
AZD has started building the Ganja rail car construction plant together with Swiss company Stadler Rail Group, he said.
Ganja has allocated 33.7 hectares for this.
Earlier the Azerbaijani Transport Ministry reported that the production capacity of the rail car plant in Ganja would be 50 rail cars per year. Construction will take 18 months. When the company is launched, Azerbaijan will be able to produce passenger rail cars for domestic and international transport. The plant will also build metro cars.
CJSC AZD signed a contract with Alstom in May 2014 to buy 50 KZ8A freight locomotives. The trains will be assembled in 2016-2018 at the joint venture EKZ, created by Alstom in Astana (Kazakhstan). The contract is worth 300 million euros. The contract may also include construction of a depot, technical aid and servicing and AZD personnel training.
