MINSK, 29 December (BelTA) – Belarusian Railways signed a contract with China Electric Import & Export Company (CUEC) and the electric locomotive manufacturing company CRRC Datong on 29 December. As part of the contract Belarusian Railways will get 15 single-section alternating-current freight electric locomotives BKG2, BelTA has learned.
The contract was signed by Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov, CUEC Chairman of the Board Wang Jinsong and CRRC Datong Chairman of the Board Huang Qichao.
The electric locomotives will be delivered to Belarus by the end of 2023. The investment project is estimated at €64.3 million. The locomotives will be bought using credit resources of the Export-Import Bank of China.
The Belarusian Railways press service noted that the single-section electric locomotives BKG2 are an improved model in comparison with the locomotives Belarusian Railways bought previously. The new locomotives will be able to haul passenger trains in addition to freight ones.
Belarusian Railways has cooperated with China Electric Import & Export Company and CRRC Datong for ten years. In the period the Belarusian enterprise acquired 30 freight electric locomotives BKG1 and BKG2. The railway sections Gomel-Zhlobin-Osipovichi and Molodechno-Gudogai-the state border have been electrified thanks to tight cooperation with China Electric Import & Export Company. Work continues to electrify the section Zhlobin-Kalinkovichi-Barbarov.
In his welcome speech Vladimir Morozov stressed that freight is freely transported between Europe and China thanks to the joint contribution to the development of the infrastructure and the locomotive fleet. The volume of freight transportation by rail has been rising dynamically for the last few years. In 2015 the volume of container shipment totaled 59,900 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). The figure rose by nine times to approach 540,000 TEUs by the end of 2020.
