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Newspaper Dienas Bizness reports that RVR own investment will be EUR 13 million, and the Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, S.A. (CAF) will invest another EUR 4 million, writes LETA/Nozare.lv.

RVR board chairman Valerijs Igaunis says that Pasazieru vilciens signed the contract with CAF on April 2, and now RVR manufacturing process will be revamped for the company to comply with CAF requirements, and a group of RVR specialists will be sent to Spain for training already in the near future.

30 specialists from RVR will receive extensive training at the CAF plant in Spain that will continue for several months, RVR specialists will also participate in the production of six trains. After returning from Spain, these people will pass on their experience to the other RVR workers and employees. CAF will provide the training, hand over the technical documents regarding the new trains to RVR, organize supply of train parts, special equipment, worth approximately EUR 4 million altogether, said RVR Director General Lazars Raizbergs.

CAF technical audit team will visit RVR to draw up a preparatory plan for the manufacture of new trains for Pasazieru vilciens in Riga. This means that facilities will have to be reconstructed, infrastructural changes will take place, cranes and other equipment will be upgraded to meet the CAF requirements, added Raizbergs.

It was originally anticipated that the contract on new train supply and maintenance would be signed in September 2011, but the contract was eventually signed seven or eight months later, therefore now RVR must do very much within a very short period of time, said Raizbergs.

The total amount of investment in RVR is planned at EUR 13 million, but the figure may change yet after the technical audit is carried out. RVR does not have this much money, which is why a loan will be taken out from a bank.

Although "Civity" trains are manufactured for 1435 millimeter and 1660 millimeter gauges, no such trains are manufactured for the 1520 millimeter gauge, therefore this will be a unique project for Latvia and the entire economic area where the gauge width is 1520 millimeters, said Raizbergs. The work on a technical project is under way at CAF currently.

According to the schedule, the CAF trains will be brought to Latvia for certification in the summer or fall of 2013. The Spanish company will fully build the first six trains for Pasazieru vilciens. The next eight trains will be partly built by CAF and by RVR, and the remaining 20 trains will be fully built in Riga.