COUNTRY | Egypt
REGION | Africa
SECTOR | transport
QII Principles | Principle 1 Sustainable Growth & Development, Principle 2 Economic Efficiency, Principle 3 Environmental Considerations, Principle 6 Infrastructure Governance
QII Sub-Principles | 1: SDGs, 1: Wider economic benefits, 2: Life-cycle costing, 2: Operation and maintenance, 3: Environmental Impact Mitigation, 3: Disclosure of environmental aspects, 3: Emissions, 4: Disaster risk management, 5: Capacity and institutional building, 5: Gender, 6: Procurement transparency, 6: Anti-corruption
Overview
Cost: EUR 171 million
Parties involved (public and private): Egyptian National Railways ‘ENR’, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of International Cooperation, Ministry of Finance.
Relevant contractual details (type, length etc.): 15-year tenor sovereign loan of up to EUR 126 mln to be on-lent to ENR.
Context: The loan is used to purchase six new trainsets to replace ageing rolling stock as part of a much-needed modernisation of ENR’s fleet. The new trainsets will operate on the overcrowded Cairo-Alexandria route.
Aim(s) of the project: Supporting ENR’s transformation into a more efficient and transparent operator and improvement of the safety and quality of its services.
Relevance to QII
The project provides socio-economic benefits to rail passengers by providing safer, more reliable and faster services. This will encourage rail use over the use of congested roads, with wider economic benefits and contribution towards Environmental impact mitigation.
The operation and maintenance contract improves life-cycle costing.
Energy Action Plan that will contribute to reducing energy consumption and lowering carbon emissions.
The project assists the client with the development and implementation of a Corporate Governance Plan to improve transparency and accountability within ENR's managerial and operational structure.
It supports gender-related improvements in the provision of rail services.
Benefits
The new rolling stock will offer more reliable, safer and faster services thereby encouraging ridership and discouraging modal shift to road transport which will help to reduce CO2 emissions;
Deeper private sector participation via rolling stock maintenance to ensure full life-cycle availability and quality of service;
Supporting the development and implementation of a Corporate Governance Plan
Introducing for the first time an Energy Efficiency Action to monitor and manage energy use effectively;
Supporting gender-related improvements in the provision of rail services by helping ENR to identify opportunities to respond to such needs and train key staff
Expected and realised benefits:
- Full life-cycle availability of the new trainsets and improved service
- Improved life-cycle costing and operating cost saving.
- Improvements in energy management and efficiency
- Strengthening transparency of ENR’s corporate governance
- Strengthening of the financial planning framework within ENR
- Improvements to the rail services provided by ENR with respect to Gender-related matters.
Metrics
- Procurement of six new trainsets under a Supply and Maintain contract including the first major overhaul of the assets;
- Effective operation evidenced by 90 per cent availability of the new fleet and adequate quality and comfort for users;
- Introduction of a new Corporate Governance Plan and adoption of the key recommended measures;
- Developing an Energy Efficiency Action Plan and an Energy Management System and implementation of an ESAP;
- Appointing a Senior Manager in charge of Energy Efficiency;
- Improvements in working ratio and farebox ratio annually;
- Implementation of key recommended gender-related improvements in the provision of rail services.
Name of Institution
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Website URL