Asia – Page 128
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NewsWheel plant agreement signed
INDIA: State-owned steelmaker RINL-VSP and Indian Railways signed a memorandum of understanding on December 21 to establish a forged wheel factory at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. The plant is scheduled to be completed within 36 months at a cost of Rs10bn. It would have a production capacity of 100 ...
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NewsTurkish PowerHaul order confirmed
TURKEY: Plans to build 50 PowerHaul diesel locomotives in Eskişehir over the next two years were announced by General Electric and Tülomsaş on January 14. Under the strategic partnership between the two companies, the Turkish builder is to assemble 20 locomotives for state railway TCDD and a further 30 for ...
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NewsRailway planned to link Cambodian steel plant and port
CAMBODIA: Under an agreement worth up to US$11bn, a 405 km north-south railway is to be constructed as part of a Chinese-funded investment to build steel production and port facilities in the country. The railway would be built by China Railway Group under contract to the Chinese-backed ...
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NewsPakistan Railways signs Night Coach Express PPP agreement
PAKISTAN: A public-private partnership agreement for Shalimar Group to manage an overnight Lahore - Karachi passenger service was signed by Pakistan Railways on December 26. The Night Coach Express is scheduled to start in early January, with Shalimar Group managing commercial aspects of the service and PR responsible for ...
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NewsSecond China - Kazakhstan rail link inaugurated
ASIA: A second international rail connection between China and Kazakhstan was officially inaugurated on December 22, when two special trains were operated to the border crossing at Korgas in Xinjiang province. The break-of-gauge transfer facility forms part of a free trade zone at Korgas, known as the International Centre for ...
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NewsDesign work starts on east-west Laos rail corridor
LAOS: Preparatory works are underway to construct a 220 km double-track electrified railway between Savannakhet on the Mekong river and the Vietnamese frontier at Lao Bao. The project is being undertaken under a PPP concession worth up to US$5bn, which the Laotian government awarded to Malaysian contractor ...
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NewsEKZ inaugurates Astana locomotive plant
KAZAKHSTAN: The EKZ joint venture of national railway KTZ, Alstom Transport and Transmashholding held an inauguration ceremony for its locomotive production plant in Astana attended by the country’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev on December 4. As part of a technology transfer agreement with the French supplier, EKZ will ...
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NewsDual-voltage loco to serve the Seikan Tunnel
JAPAN: The first of 20 dual-system electric locomotives being built by Toshiba for national rail freight operator JR Freight was unveiled at the manufacturer’s Fuchu factory in Tokyo on November 27. The Series EH800 Bo-Bo+Bo-Bo locomotives are intended to haul 1 067 mm gauge freight services between Honshu and Hokkaido ...
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NewsHuawei wins Turkmenistan Railways telecoms contract
TURKMENISTAN: Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply telecoms for the 288 km Chilmammet - Buzhun section of the north-south rail corridor which is under construction to link Kazakhstan and Iran. The Chinese firm will work with ASPMK-519 and KEC International. The scope of the contract includes provision of ...
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NewsEBRD backs Almaty light rail PPP
KAZAKHSTAN: A memorandum of understanding for the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development to assist the city of Almaty in awarding a PPP contract for the development of a 'fast tram' line was signed on November 7. The planned 14 km light rail line to replace the existing tram route ...
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NewsMalaysian firm to build east-west corridor in Laos
LAOS: Watched by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Laotian Deputy Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, a contract was signed in Vientiane on November 5 for construction of a 220 km railway running east-west across Laos from the Thai to Vietnamese borders. Under an agreement with the ...
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NewsCentral Asian strategic transport plan agreed
ASIA: Meeting at Wuhan in China at the end of October, ministers from the 10 Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation Program countries agreed an action plan to implement transport infrastructure projects costing more than US$23bn, together with energy and trade initiatives aimed at improving connectivity. The majority of the medium-term ...
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NewsChinese loan agreements revive trans-Laos project
LAOS: Vientiane has agreed to accept US$7bn of loans from China to restart construction of the stalled 420 km north-south railway linking the capital to China’s Yunnan province via Phônhông, Vangvieng, Luang Phabang, Oudomxay and Louang Namtha. The cross-border project dates back to 2009, when an agreement ...
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NewsADB reviews Myanma Railways' needs
MYANMAR: As part of its re-engagement with Myanmar after ceasing operations there in the 1980s, the Asian Development Bank has published a report recommending a restructuring of the 'complex and overlapping institutional structure' which it believes is impeding effective management of rail, road water and air transport. ADB says Myanma ...
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NewsTransmashholding eyes the Pakistan rail market
PAKISTAN: The Ministry of Railways, Pakistan Railways and Russian rolling stock supplier Transmashholding signed a memorandum of understanding setting out plans for co-operation on October 1. The parties have agreed to identify projects where Pakistan might be interested in Russian products, and where TMH could make investments and transfer technology ...
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NewsKTZ staff train in California
KAZAKHSTAN: The first class of KTZ staff to receive bespoke training from academics at the University of California Berkeley received their certificates on September 10. A team of academics from the Haas Business School is providing multi-disciplinary classes to 143 members from KTZ's headquarters and regional offices. The first ...
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NewsJapan to fund four-tracking in West Java
INDONESIA: Work is expected to begin by the end of the month to increase capacity on a congested mixed-traffic corridor in the suburbs of Jakarta. Central to the project is the four tracking and resignalling of the current 32 route-km double-track alignment between Manggarai and Cikarang. State ...
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NewsVietnam railway selects IVU.rail
VIETNAM: National railway DSVN is to use the IVU.rail software package from IVU Traffic Technologies to plan and control the operation of 380 locomotives and 5000 vehicles across the network, and to improve customer information. The Berlin-based supplier says a special feature of this deployment will be the variety of ...
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NewsAusAID pledges funding as Cambodian rehabilitation resumes
CAMBODIA: Australian overseas development agency AusAID has pledged further financial assistance to support the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s partly-modernised metre-gauge network. AusAID’s contribution of at least A$1m will support the relocation and compensation of families affected by the US$141m railway modernisation. The upgrading work is being co-ordinated by ...
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NewsAlstom unveils KZ8A freight locomotive
KAZAKHSTAN: The first of 200 KZ8A twin-section freight locomotives being supplied by an Alstom-led consortium to national railway KTZ was unveiled in Belfort, eastern France, on October 2. Under a contract valued at €1·3bn signed in March 2011, the EKZ joint venture of KTZ (50%), Transmashholding (25%) ...