OREANDA-NEWS. May 20, 2013. The Ministry of Infrastructure aiming to modernize and upgrade the railway transport of Ukraine plans next year to launch the production of freight locomotives at the production facilities of JSC LuganskTeplovoz.

According to the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Kozak, a large part of the fleet of electric locomotives produced in the 60 years of the last century and need updating.

"In Ukraine, there is no one plant that produces electric locomotives. I negotiated with the CEO and owners of TransMashHolding, with the CEO" LuhanskTeplovoz in order to organize the production of these locomotives in Lugansk. If a decision is taken, then the production of electric locomotives will begin in the second half of next year," the Minister of Infrastructure said.

According to him, at the beginning of localization of the production will be about 30%, and by 2015 it ups to 90% for D.C. locomotives and about 65% for AC locomotives. The Minister also added that during this time about 20 enterprises in Ukraine will increase production by 2-4 times. And realization of this project will reach production of 100 locomotives a year.

Within the project of modernization of railways Ministry of Infrastructure plans to allocate UAH 238.3 mln for the reconstruction of Beskid tunnel.

"Beskid tunnel was built as a single track in the 19th century and currently does not meet the requirements of any security or needs Ukrzaliznytsi throughput: both passenger and for freight," the Minister of Infrastructure said.

In addition, he said, the result of constant flooding the tunnel there is a need to replace the rail bed every 2 years, while their normal service life is at least 10 years of age.

Also as part of the modernization in 2013 it will be held electrification of railway lines in the amount of UAH 8.3 billion and a total length of 493 km, modernization of railway lines and laying new track switches for a total of UAH 986.6 million and acquired of 5994 freight cars for a total of UAH 4.3 billion.