SOUTH AFRICA: The Gibela consortium of Alstom and local partners which is to supply 580 six-car X’Trapolis Mega EMUs to Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has awarded a R400m contract for the construction of its factory in Dunnottar to a joint venture of Trencon Construction and Black Jills Engineers.
‘The Trencon Black Jills JV was selected from seven entities that tendered for the main site buildings package’, said Gibela CEO Marc Granger on June 2. ‘All tenders were adjudicated on the basis of empowerment credentials, price and most importantly, contribution to economic development – a critical component of the overall rolling stock project.’
The plant will comprise five manufacturing buildings, including a training centre which will be completed first, as well as two administrative buildings and utility facilities. Site clearance was completed in February and mobilisation for construction got underway during May. Initial production is scheduled to begin in Q2 2017, ahead of full completion of the plant by November 2017.
