TANZANIA: Hyundai Rotem has awarded Škoda Transportation a Kc580m contract to supply the electrical equipment for 17 passenger locomotives which Tanzania Railways Corp has ordered for use on the 546 km 25 kV 50 Hz electrified standard gauge line under construction between Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Makutopora.
TRC awarded the locomotive contract to Hyundai Rotem on July 15, with the South Korean manufacturer saying it had been selected because of its ability to offer vehicles optimised for African markets by drawing on its experience supplying Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria.
The locomotives for TRC will be produced at the Hyundai Rotem plant at Changwon in South Korea, with Škoda supplying electrical equipment from Plzeň in the Czech Republic.
Škoda Electric Sales Director Karel Majer said the project was technically interesting, as the locomotives would face challenging climatic conditions and large differences in altitude.
‘We will be supplying complete sets of electrical equipment including main and auxiliary drives, battery chargers, traction motors, gearboxes and wheelsets’, he said on October 13. ‘The locomotives will run at up to 160 km/h, which under the local conditions represents a significant increase in speed compared to the usual standard.’
Škoda Electric CEO Bedřich Koukal said the latest deal followed from previous projects with Hyundai Rotem, including the supply of electrical equipment for 80 E68000 locomotives ordered by Turkey’s TCDD in 2011, and driverless light metro cars for Incheon. ‘Our current contract is a very important reference for us — it proves that we are able to succeed with our products on a global scale’, he said.
- The Dar es Salaam – Makutopora route forms the first two stages of a US$7bn project to connect Dar es Salaam with Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and DR Congo. Subscribers can read more about the Tanzania’s standard gauge railway in the July 2021 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine.
