Baku, Azerbaijan, May 13
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Switzerland's Stadler Rail Group signed a contract on May 13 in Baku on the purchase of five KISS double-decker trains.
The Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Chairman Javid Gurbanov and the Stadler Rail Group CEO Peter Spuhler signed the contract.
The signing ceremony was held as part of the 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition, TransCaspian 2015.
Gurbanov said the contract is worth about 60-70 million euros, which are to be paid to Stadler Rail Group in 20 years with help of the revenues from passenger transportations.
Each train consists of four cars. The passenger capacity of each train is 919 people and there are 396 seats in each train, 84 of which are business class seats.
It was noted at the signing ceremony that the first two trains will be delivered to Azerbaijan in June 2015, and they will run during the First European Games between the Baku Railway Station and the Koroglu Metro Station, near the Baku Olympic Stadium.
The rest of the trains will be delivered to Azerbaijan by late January 2016. After the completion of the European Games all the five trains are planed to be used on the Baku-Sumgait railway.
The Baku-Sumgait railway will be commissioned on June 5. Its length is 43 kilometers.
The overhaul of the Baku-Sumgait railway started March 3.
After the completion of repairs, it will be possible to reach the Sumgait station by electric train from Baku in about 40 minutes.
Some 110,000 motor vehicles daily run between Baku and Sumgait, carrying a total of about 200,000 people.
At the initial stage it will be possible to transport 15,000 passengers by electric trains.
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