Russia: Aleksey Garanin, the director of the joint venture manufacturing company Nizhekotrans, announced the localisation of tram production at the Foxbus plant during an event dedicated to the transfer of new rolling stock to the Russian regions.
“This year we’ve mastered and started the production of modern low-floor LVRs”, he said in response to a question from President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Ten single-car MiNiN trams have arrived in Nizhny Novgorod since December 2022. Under a concession agreement, the city will receive a total of 170 vehicles, of which 144 are single-car, and 26 are three-car. These trams are based on the Belarusian T811 platform.
BKM Holding, a partner in the joint venture based in Belarus, has told ROLLINGSTOCK that the second phase of the project has started, and will require delivering vehicle kits and raising the localisation rate at the Vorsma plant to 30%. The manufacturer has supplied nine kits for further assembly, using components manufactured in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The customer has already received four LRVs, which are now being commissioned before they are ready for operation.
The Vorsma plant will assemble 19 vehicle kits. According to BKM Holding, the third phase will start earlier than planned with the assembly of the 20th single-car LRV. In this phase, the tram bodies will be manufactured at the Nizhekotrans plant and the bogies and electrical equipment will be supplied from Belarus. This will increase the local content at the Vorsma plant to 50%. The Belarusian manufacturer says that it is preparing for this phase and will complete all deliveries in 2024.
In total, another 130 single-car LRVs will be built at Vorsma. Meanwhile, three-car trams will still be supplied from Belarus. Gleb Nikitin, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, revealed in February that Vorsma plans to increase its annual output to 80 tram cars by year-end.
