A new batch of Russian locomotives of the TGM8 model arrived on Wednesday at the port of Havana, a day before the beginning of the official visit to Cuba of the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitri Medvedev.

It was also known that in the next few hours, the top executives of the Russian company SINARA, the manufacture company of these locomotives, will arrive in Havana as well.

Rolando Navarro, deputy director of the Union of Railways of Cuba (UFC), said that the locomotives will be allocated to the central and eastern provinces of the country.

The report states that this shipment is part of the fulfillment of the contract signed by the SINARA and the UFC last January for the acquisition of 75 new locomotives during the next five years, at the rate of 15 locomotives per year.

These locomotives will reinforce the transportation of cargo for different sectors of the Cuban economy, including the activity of containers, a processes related to the sugarcane industry, the production of construction materials, and the transportation of the products for the basic food basket.

With this new shipment, there are already 43 TGM8 locomotives in the country, out of a total of 75, a delivery process that is expected to be completed by the 2021.