Han Ximin
ximhan@126.com
A TOTAL of 83 experts and employees with Shenzhen Metro Group who had been working on a light rail project in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, returned to Shenzhen yesterday, marking the end of the project’s first contract year.
The returned employees cover different sectors of Metro services including driving, maintenance, dispatching, marketing and ticket sales, as well as customer and station services.
In the second year of the three-year contract, the aid work will focus on maintenance.
“Through training, a total of 129 Ethiopian drivers have passed examinations and started their light rail duties,” said Yuan Hulin, general manager of No. 2 Company of the Shenzhen Metro Operation Headquarters. Before the end of the year, the company will complete trainings for 19 types of technicians.
Ninety-nine Shenzhen Metro employees still remain in Ethiopia and will return in two batches after the contract is terminated in August 2018.
Shenzhen Metro Group and China Railway Group signed an agreement with Ethiopian Railway Co. in December 2014 for maintaining and operating a light rail in Ethiopia. It marked Shenzhen’s first experience in exporting Metro maintenance and operation services overseas.
The contract started in the first quarter of 2015 and would last for 41 months. The contract is worth US$100 million and includes services to two light rails in Addis Ababa.
Shenzhen Metro Group, in partnership with China Railway Group, agreed to send 182 professionals to provide safe and high-quality light-rail services, help the country build a complete, systematic light-rail system and train managerial and technical employees from Ethiopia during the contractual period.
In line with the contract, Ethiopian Railway Co. sent 209 employees in batches to attend training classes in Shenzhen. Each session lasted about two to three months.
The light rail was put into operation in September last year, and by July 15 the service carried 30.88 million passengers.
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