Egypt's Minister of Transportation Kamel Al-Wazir received Thursday 10 new locomotives from the US General ElectricTransportation company.

This is the first batch of a 110-locomotive agreement for the procurement of new locomotives and the maintenance of 81 railway tractors, as part of a recent deal signed between the Egyptian government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The deal falls within the transportation ministry's plan to support the current fleet of rail tractors and to increase the number of trips made, improve the service provided, and meet the demands of railway passengers, the minister said.

"These are the first new locomotives to join the fleet of the Egyptian Railway Authority since 2009," he noted.

The new locomotives will contribute towards increasing the proportion of goods transported by rail, reducing the burden on roads, in addition to increasing the financial resources available to the national railway, he added.

One of the new locomotives that are scheduled to be operational in the near future.

Al-Wazir pointed out that the railway’s own resources, from tickets, fines, railway assets, and advertisements, covered the first batch of locomotives, at a cost of $27.05 million, while the total value of all 110 tractors will reach $602.05 million.