CSR Corporation subsidiary CSR Nanjing Puzhen has secured a contract to supply 33 six-car type B metro trains for Shenzhen Line 3.

 

The 100km/h 1.5kV dc trains will feature stainless-steel carbodies and are due to be delivered in 2015-2016, supplementing the existing fleet of 43 CNR Changchun trains supplied for the opening of the line in 2010.

 

The delivery of the additional trains will allow operating headways on the 42km line from Yitian to Shuanglong to be reduced to three minutes by 2016.

 

Line 3 is also known as the Longgang Line and is operated by MTR Shenzhen Company, a subsidiary of MTR Corporation.

 

 

 

 

 

KAZAKHSTAN Railways (KTZ) subsidiary Passazhirskie Perevozki has awarded Talgo and its local joint venture Tuplar-Talgo a €482m contract to supply 603 coaches for long-distance services.

 

The vehicles will be formed into 21 sets and will be maintained by the supplier for 15 years in a deal worth around €1bn.

 

Components for the trains will be manufactured at Talgo's Spanish production units in Rivabellosa (Alava) and Las Matas (Madrid), with final assembly taking place at plants in Kazakhstan, though a technology transfer deal with the Tuplar-Talgo facility in Astana, which opened in December 2011.

 

The trains will be designed for 200km/h operation on 1520mm-gauge track and have been designed to withstand extreme ambient conditions and temperatures as low as -50°C. They will also meet customs union requirements for Russia and Belarus.

 

KTZ awarded Talgo a contract in November 2010 to supply 420 vehicles, which are being assembled in Astana. The Astana plant has capacity to produce up to 150 vehicles per year, and last year assembled a total of 52 coaches. Tuplar-Talgo expects to build 158 coaches this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRAQI Republic Railways has issued two calls for tender for the supply of track maintenance equipment as part of the long process to rehabilitate the 1900km railway after the devastating war.

 

One tender is for a track recording car, for which separate technical and commercial offers are required. The closing date for bids is July 21.

 

The second tender is for 100 ballast wagons. Again separate technical and financial offers must be submitted, but the closing date is August 8.

 

 

  

 

SINGAPORE Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (SMRT) has awarded a contract worth more than Yen 8bn ($US 80.5m) to Toshiba, Japan, to re-equip a fleet of 66 six-car metro trains with permanent-magnet synchronous traction motors.

 

The new motors are being fitted as part of the refurbismet of the existing drive equipment, the first such upgrade since the C151 trains entered service in 1987. Four of the six cars on each train are powered. Toshiba says the new traction.motors will reduce power consumption by 30%, as well as cutting noise.

 

Installation will start on the first two trains in early 2015, which will then be tested for up to two years before work starts to equip the rest of the fleet.

 

Permanent-magnet synchronous traction motor were first introduced by Toshiba in Japan and are currently fitted to trains operating on three lines of the Tokyo metro. The Singapore contract is the first to be won outside Japan, and Toshiba hopes this will be a springboard for further export orders.

 

 

 

 

THE first of 20 locomotives supplied by CNR's Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock subsidiary have entered service in Argentina.

 

The locomotives are powered by an MTU 16V 4000 R43 engine with an output of 2.2MW. There are two types of locomotive: the CKD8G freight unit with a maximum speed of 120km/h, of which 13 have been built, while the remaining seven comprise the CKD8H passenger version which has a top speed of 160km/h.

 

The locomotives are intended to haul trains on the 708km Buenos Aires – Rosario – Córdoba 1676mm-gauge main line.

 

 

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FOLLOWING the retirement of Mr Vinay Mittal on July 1, current member, mechanical, Mr Arunendra Kumar (pictured right) has also temporarily assumed the position of chairman of Indian Railways' board.

 

The Railway Ministry, led by recently-appointed railways minister Mr Mallikarjun Kharge (pictured left), decided against appointing a full-time chairman due to the controversy surrounding the top posts in the railway following May's cash for appointments scandal. Board member, staff, Mr Mahesh Kumar was arrested after he was reportedly found to offer cash for the coveted position of member electrical, while previous railway minister, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, was also forced to resign.

 

Other existing board members have taken on temporary roles following a number of retirements. Long considered the front runner for the chairmanship, Mr Kul Bhusan, the current member, electrical, will also take care of the responsibilities of member, traffic, which has been vacant for the past two months.

 

Kumar's position as member, staff, is being covered by current member, engineering, Mr Subodh Jain, while member, budget, Mr Rajendra Kashyap has also assumed the role of financial commissioner.

 

Kharge says permanently filling the vacant posts remains his top priority but he will wait until the names proposed for the full time chairmanship and other vacant posts on the board are cleared by the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

 

 

 

TOSHIBA, Japan, has won a Yen 6bn ($US 60m) contract from a consortium of China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation and CNR Changchun to provide electrical equipment for 60 emus being built for Rio de Janeiro's commuter rail operator SuperVia.

 

The order is for VVVF inverters and traction motors, auxiliary power systems for air-conditioning and lighting, and train monitoring which will be installed in 240 cars. Toshiba will supply the equipment between September this year and December 2014.

 

The original Reais 542.6m ($US 246.6m) train order was placed with the Chinese consortium in October 2012. There is an option for another 30 trains.

 

Seven years after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway went into operation, the "roof of the world" is about to see more railways connecting it to other parts of China.

 

Several new railway lines are either under construction or being planned to form a rail network in the sparsely populated Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in western China, according to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, the operator of the world's highest railway.

 

During China's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) period, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will branch out in all directions, ending the history of no railways in the southern part of Tibet Autonomous Region and strengthening its ties with neighboring provinces.

 

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which spans 1,956 km from Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, regional capital of Tibet, carried 10.76 million people and 56.06 million tonnes of cargo in 2012. With these new extension lines in place, the company estimates that its passenger and cargo loads will increase to 14 million and 90 tonnes, respectively, in 2015.

 

The railway has led to a boom in tourism in Tibet. In 2012, more than 10 million tourists visited the autonomous region, up 21.7 percent year on year, and tourism revenue surged 30.3 percent to 12.64 billion yuan (2.06 billion US dollars).

 

According to Zhu Jianping, the company's vice general manager, the railway network will bring major cities in western China closer.

 

One of the first extensions to be completed will be a 253-km line linking Lhasa to Xigaze, a historical city in southwestern Tibet.

 

Construction of the line began in September 2010, and is expected to finish at the end of this year, Losang Jamcan, chairman of the Tibet regional government, said during China's annual parliamentary session in March.

 

The company is also considering a line between Lhasa to Nyingchi, a prefecture in the southeastern part of the autonomous region famous for its virgin forests.

 

Meanwhile, two new lines will extend from Golmud, a city in Qinghai that serves as an important junction on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. One will run toward Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province and the other to Korla, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

 

With 12.9 billion yuan in investment, construction on the Golmud-Dunhuang line was kicked off last October and is expected to be completed in five years, company spokesperson Wang Tao told Xinhua.

 

This extension will join existing railways that link Xinjiang with Qinghai and Gansu provinces, forming a circular railway network upon completion.

 

The proposal for the Golmud-Korla line passed a feasibility test in June. With a length of 1,222.9 km and an investment of 33.5 billion yuan, this extension will, for the first time, provide direct rail transportation between Tibet and Xinjiang, reducing the trip between Lhasa and Urumqi by more than 1,000 km.

 

In a bid to make the plateau more accessible to southwest China, authorities in Qinghai have also proposed adding two more lines linking economic powerhouse Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to Golmud and Xining.

 

However, building and operating railways on the world's highest plateau are no easy feats. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was designed and built with ecological considerations in mind. More than 1.5 billion yuan was spent on environmental conservation along its route, accounting for 5 percent of the project's total spending.

 

The railway has 33 special passageways for rare animals, including the critically-endangered Tibetan antelope. It also bypassed celestial burial grounds and lamaseries to show respect to local custom and protect religious sites.

 

Wang Jinchang, a section manager with the engineering affairs department of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, said an additional 195 million yuan has been invested over the past seven years to improve local ecology and protect wildlife.

 

"The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has provided a lot of experience for us to draw on for the construction and operation of future railway projects," Zhu said.

 

"The plateau railway network will be energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly and have minimal ecological impact," he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

India is trying to persuade Iran to build the 165km missing rail link between Rasht, Iran, and Astara, Azerbaijan, a connection that will help Asia’s third biggest economy access the markets of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Russia.

 

The development comes at a time when India is also considering starting negotiations for a comprehensive trade pact with the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union. CIS refers to the East European satellites of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

 

At a meeting held recently in Azerbaijan of eight countries interested in the project, India was represented by a delegation led by commerce ministry officials. It also included officials from the rail ministry and Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES). India has offered to provide consulting services through RITES to complete the railway project at the earliest.

 

“If this rail corridor is completed, we will have access to Russia and the CIS countries through the land route, which could give us substantial market access,” said a commerce ministry official, who declined to be named. India currently uses the Suez canal to reach the landlocked CIS?countries. If the rail link is built, goods from India can be ferried through Iran into the CIS countries using the Bandar Abbas port, which will reduce the distance drastically.

 

A senior official at RITES, who also did not want to be named, said the state-owned company has submitted a proposal for a project feasibility study. “Iran is yet to give its clearance for the project. It is expected by 31 July,” he said.

 

The cost of the project could vary depending on the kind of track that is laid, he said. “It could be a single track or double track, and the material used will determine the price.”

 

CIS countries account for just 1% of India’s total trade, down sharply from the 30% share in the 1990s, said the commerce ministry official cited earlier.

 

“We ran to the West in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Now the economies in that region are stable and offer great market potential,” he said.

 

The CIS countries are virgin territory, said Biswajit Dhar, director general, Research and Information System for Developing Countries.

 

“Once we get access to these countries through the land route, this can also give us easier access to Europe. We should be focusing more on matters of this kind since the name of the game is transaction cost,” he said.

 

With a widening trade deficit and economic trouble in the euro zone, India is looking for new markets to boost exports. The trade deficit in 2012-13 was $191.7 billion while the current account deficit widened to a record 4.8% of the gross domestic product. India’s exports to Russia increased 29% to $2.3 billion in 2012-13.

 

At the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, India’s trade minister Anand Sharma and Viktor Khristenko, chairman, Eurasian Economic Commission, discussed the possibility of a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement with the Customs Union, which includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Kyrgyzstan is keen to join the grouping and is expected to be granted observer status.

 

The commerce ministry official said the government is planning to conduct a study on the viability of such an agreement. “Sharma has already given his nod for the study. We will soon be approaching the Prime Minister’s trade and economic relations committee for approval,” he said.

 

Abhijit Das, a professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and head of the Centre for WTO Studies, said Russia is a big market while the other countries in the region, though small, are rich in energy resources. “While negotiating with such countries, India should focus on ensuring part of its energy security from this region, apart from trying to meet their import requirements,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 100-year-old dream of Maharaja Pratap Singh was realised June 25th when an all-weather train connecting Kashmir with rest of India chugged off for the first time through the Pir Panjal Mountains, providing an alternative surface link to the Valley.

 

The railway line, flagged off by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) head Sonia Gandhi, started in Banihal, Jammu and reached Qazigund, Kashmir in 25 minutes.

 

The 18km railway line passes through an 11.2km-long tunnel, the longest in India and second longest in Asia, constructed by the Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC), a leading Indian construction group.

 

"This railway project is the dream of the nation, and an effort of the UPA Government to develop and connect Jammu & Kashmir with rest of the country," Singh told the audience in Banihal.

 

Boost to economy

 

Residents eagerly anticipated economic benefits from the new railway, especially in winter.

 

"With this railway line, more tourists will come to Kashmir. Earlier, during the winters, many tourists could not visit Kashmir because of the road closures due to heavy snowfall. Now, tourists can visit Kashmir at any time." Niyaz Ahmad told Khabar South Asia. Ahmad recently opened a dry fruit shop near the railway station in Banihal.

 

Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Abdul Hamid said businesses would also benefit. "During the winters, most of the businessmen travel to different parts of the country to buy different commodities. Earlier, they had to wait for several days for the reopening of the national highway," he told Khabar. "However, now they will not face such problems."

 

Many youths already have jobs at the different railway stations. Mohammed Younis, from Qazigund, recently joined the railway police. "When we have more railway stations, they (railway authorities) require more people. They will give preference to locals only," he said.

 

A dream comes true

 

Locals described the new rail line as an engineering marvel and a long wish fulfilled.

 

"I have witnessed the people who got stranded during the winters for days. I am so happy. This railway line will benefit everyone," said Mohammed Qayoom, who owns a hotel in Qazigund. "I travelled in the train the day after the inauguration, and the journey was so comfortable."

 

For Nazeer Ahmad Khan, a shopkeeper from Ramsoo near Banihal, the railway line is a miracle of engineering. "It was not an easy task. They were working round the clock. Everyone in my village still couldn't believe that they have an all-weather train available now," he said.

 

Credit goes to the engineers and workers who laboured on the project beginning in 2005.

 

"The tunnel has been constructed using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method and it is for the first time in the country that this method has been used on such a large scale. About 1,300 workers and 150 engineers worked round the clock to accomplish this challenging task," HCC Project Manager Sharanappa Yalal told Khabar.

 

"Our men kept working even in freezing temperatures, with a singular objective to successfully execute this project. The tunnel is totally water proof and is equipped with a fire fighting system across the entire length of the tunnel," he added.

 

 

 

 

 

Xinhua reported that a Chinese manufactured stainless steel metro vehicle began its journey to Turkey from central China's Hunan Province, the first of its kind to be exported to the European market.

 

Mr Liu Youmei, an official with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co, Ltd, said that the vehicle, which consists of 3 carriages, is being taken to Shanghai Port, where it will be shipped to Turkey's capital Ankara on June 11th arriving by mid July.

 

Mr Liu said that “Another 107 stainless steel metro vehicles will be sent to Turkey.”

 

Mr Liu said that “With a speed of 80 km per hour, the vehicle holds a maximum of 1,008 passengers. The interior has been made higher to accommodate taller European people.”

 

In April, CSR Zhuzhou and Turkish companies in Ankara set up JV in the production and maintenance of urban rail vehicles, electric locomotives and high-speed trains.

 

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co, Ltd, is a subsidiary company of CSR Corp Ltd, China's largest train manufacturer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday morning took a ride on Beijing subway system here and enquired about its operation and facilities. The PM before travelling in metro train went to the operation room of the Line-6, where he was briefed about the subway system of the capital city.

 

While travelling in the train the PM was briefed about the cost of the project, the number of people benefiting from it and the quality of service available. The Prime Minister was also informed about the subsidy the government was providing to the travelling commuters. He was informed that on average 40,000 people ride in the subway in one hour.

 

Talking to newsmen, he said his government was committed to provide low-cost comfortable journey to the masses. "I was impressed with the underground railway system," PM said, adding "we want to have this facility in Pakistan as well." Chief Ministers of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, Advisor to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, Ambassador Masood Khalid, senior officials from China and Pakistan also travelled in Metro.

 

The Beijing's subway length has risen from 114 km in 2007 to 456 km, according to officials. By 2015, the number of subway lines in Beijing will reach 19, with a combined length of 561 km. By 2020, the total subway length is expected to have increased to 1,000 km. Official statistics indicated that China's total urban transit investment has reached 1.23 trillion Yuan, of which 189.6 billion Yuan was used to build 337 km of subway lines in 2012. Another 220 billion Yuan will be used to build 290 km of subway lines in 2013. China CSR and China CNR are country's two biggest train manufacturers.