CZ LOKO will modernize 49 locomotives in Belorussia
In Belorussia, the CZ LOKO joint-stock company, oriented on production, modernization and repairs of shunting and railway diesel electric locomotives, will modernize 49 ČME3 locomotives, belonging to the state Belorussian Railway. The Contract in the value of EURO 46 Mio is distributed between the years 2011 to 2014.
„Regarding the number of locomotives modernized, as well as its total volume, this is an exceptional order. References from the neighboring Lithuania, where we have modernized 23 locomotives of the same series within the last few years, have helped us a lot “, says Josef Bárta, director general of CZ LOKO.
However, the CZ LOKO Company does not export “iron” only; in particular, it exports its ideas and solutions. Its designers and constructors have devised a general modernization including all the necessary details for the ageing ČME3 locomotives that were produced several tens of years ago in the former ČKD Lokomotivka. Its basis consists of a “building set” of modules and components, manufactured in the Czech plants of CZ LOKO. Even the Czech railway carriers have chosen the same method of their locomotives modernization. Besides the above-mentioned modernization, the CZ LOKO firm, together with its business partners, realizes currently a design of a new shunting locomotive that replaces the obsolete and inefficient locomotives, manufactured in the former Soviet Union.
„After the economic crisis, the East European railways are experiencing an evident recovery. Owing to the fact that for many years we have been operating and that we operate in these states the operation-tested, modern locomotives, we have, compared to the other competitors, a substantial advantage. It would be a shame not to utilize it or to waste it”, stated Josef Bárta.
The joint-stock company CZ LOKO is a leading Czech firm in the area of railway engineering, oriented on modernization, repairs and manufacturing of diesel electrical locomotives. Besides the basic plant in Česká Třebová, there are other plants in Jihlava and Nymburk. 560 workers are employed in a firm with a turnover that exceeds 1,7 billion of CZK.