Alstom develops co-op with Azerbaijan
By Nigar Orujova
French company Alstom continues to develop its business relations with Azerbaijan, introducing new possibilities.
Alstom has begun manufacturing components for AZ8A freight electric locomotives intended for Azerbaijani supply, Martin Vaujour, the director of Alstom Transport in Russia and the CIS, told Trend.
“The contract on the supply of 50 freight locomotives for Azerbaijani Railways was signed in 2014 and a final agreement – in May 2015,” he added.
Alstom is a global leader in the manufacture of equipment for the generation and transmission of electrical energy and railway infrastructure. The company operates in about 100 countries and has been operating actively in the Azerbaijani market for over 20 years.
“At the moment, we are working together with Azerbaijani Railways,” Vaujour said. “We render our consultations to finalize the agreement on funding from the French government, with the share of COFACE export credit agency. We hope that this work will be completed in September. The total amount of the contract for 50 locomotives is slightly less than 300 million euros. Negotiations over the contract are underway. We started developing the components for locomotives.”
The AZ8A electric locomotives with asynchronous traction drives will be built specifically for Azerbaijan and will be one of the most powerful in the world. They are able to pull up to 9,000 metric tons at a speed of 120 km/h.
The locomotives supplied as part of this contract will be assembled at the EKZ joint venture, a production site located in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Vaujour went on to say that Alstom is also ready to supply a new generation trains to Azerbaijan.
“The company is currently awaiting the Azerbaijani government’s decision on financing the Baku Metro rolling stock renovation project,” he said.
“We are working together with the Baku Metro in this regard,” he said. “We render our consultations because we would like to continue cooperating in the field of rolling stock. We supplied three rolling stocks in spring 2015, which we developed together with Transmashholding. They were put into operation before the European Games in Baku. At present, we will continue a dialogue with the Baku Metro subway regarding the purchase of trains in the future.”
He said that the two sides are discussing cooperation regarding
further expanding the Baku Metro and replacing the obsolete trains
running on existing lines.
“We are ready to supply both trains, which are being jointly
developed with Transmashholding, and the new generation trains,” he
said.
“These issues are being discussed now. We continue a dialogue on this issue. We must work gradually in the current global economic conditions. Such projects always take a lot of time. We continue working. I think that the Azerbaijani authorities will make a decision by early 2016,” Vaujour noted.
He added that the design work was conducted for the construction of a new depot for the Baku Metro trains.
“The design work was carried out by French Systra company,” he said. “Alstom is not directly involved in the construction of the depot. But everything depends on the funding.”
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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