Gazette Staff CAIRO, April 22, 2017 – Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has followed up the steps taken by the authorities concerned to upgrade the railway system as part of efforts aimed at improving the services offered to citizens. The follow-up was done during a meeting between PM Ismail, Minister of Transport Hisham Arafat, the head of the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation Abdel Aziz Seif el-Deen, the head of the Egyptian National Railways Sayed Salem and a host of railway authority officials. During the meeting, the prime minister said the government gave priority to improving the railway system. He added that measures needed to be taken to establish order inside the trains and stations. The prime minister said it was necessary to continue improving services on lines that were most in use, particularly the lines to Upper Egypt. PM Ismail also followed up the implementation of a contract signed with General Electric for the maintenance of 81 tractors and the manufacture and delivery of 100 others. The tractors that are being maintained will be handed over by November 2018 while the new tractors will be supplied in the second half of 2019. Transport Minister Arafat said that the measures taken so far to establish order inside train stations had contributed to increasing revenues by LE120 million. At the end of the meeting, the prime minister and the senior officials agreed on speeding up the signing of a contract with the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation for the manufacture and supply of 140 goods carriages and 85 carriages with sliding doors.
