Romanian tramway maker Astra to deliver 62 units to municipalities

The Astra Vagoane Calatori Arad tram factory in Romania, owned by local entrepreneur Valer Blidar, will deliver 62 Imperio and Authentic trams to four major cities in Romania (Oradea, Arad, Cluj-Napoca, and Galati) after it won auctions organized by local authorities. In some cases, Astra was the only bidder, local Agerpres reported.

Two municipalities have the option to increase their orders by a further 28 trams.

All the cities organizing auctions at the same time and some awkward requirements in some cases are the main obstacles in getting such contracts, Blidar explains, but he generally agrees that the market is favorable.

"At some auctions we can't participate because of a condition that we do not understand: municipalities want longer trams than one can find in the whole country. It is also a problem that after 40 years, in which cities did not buy new trams, now all of them want them delivered within a year, which is very difficult [for us]. However, our factory has not only the advantage of low prices, but it can also make deliveries on short notice," said Blidar.

The plant will work at 60% of its maximum capacity after finding 100 more employees, compared to only 30% in the past, he announced.

(Photo source: Astra-passengers.ro)