A tender for supply of electric locomotives to the Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (JSC Ukrzaliznytsia) will be announced in two weeks.
This was announced by Viktor Dovhan, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure.
Dovhan also expressed the hope that a joint venture would be created in Ukraine with one of the world leaders in production of locomotives.
"A competition will be announced for supply and joint production of electric locomotives in two weeks – a battle between Alstom, Siemens, and CRRC," Dovhan said. According to him, other companies can also apply to participate in the tender for supply locomotives because there are no restrictions.
Ukrzaliznytsia will announce the tender. It will be for supply of 205 electric locomotives.
In addition, the adviser to the minister of infrastructure said, "The terms of financial leasing of 40 Wabtec diesel locomotives are now currently being finalized."
Citing Anton Sabolevskyi, the company’s director of strategic development and investment policy, Ukrzaliznytsia said that out of 205 the mainline electric locomotives that it plans to purchase, 135 would be alternating-current electric locomotives.
“The purchase of electric locomotives will allow Ukrzaliznytsia to close all areas of transportation of export iron ore, coal, and grain cargoes to both western border crossings and seaports,” Sabolevskyi is quoted as saying.
As reported previously, CRRC Datong (China) wants to supply electric locomotives, which will be named the Cossack, to Ukrzaliznytsia. These electric locomotives will be analogues of the Chinese-made BKG1 and BKG2 electric locomotives that are in operation in Belarus. They will be converted to meet Ukrzaliznytsia’s requirements.
In June 2018, Alstom announced that it was developing a project for production of electric locomotives for Ukraine and Georgia, which have a combined market of 350 locomotives until 2025. According to the company, 45 of these electric locomotives will be preliminarily produced for Georgia and the rest for Ukraine.
According to Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklyi, negotiations on the possibility of supply of electric locomotives to Ukrzaliznytsia were being held with Stadler, Alstom, and CRRC as of the end of last year.
