EGYPT: The National Authority for Tunnels has awarded a €850m contract for renovation of Cairo Metro’s Line 1 to a consortium led by Colas Rail with Orascom Construction and Hitachi Rail.
Colas Rail and Orascom will modernise power supplies, catenary and electromechanical systems, with Hitachi Rail modernising the signalling, control and telecommunications infrastructure.
Work is scheduled to be carried out during operating hours with normal service maintained. The project is due to run from October 2024 for 64 months, and is being provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, the European Investment Bank and Agence Française de Développement.
Line 1 opened between 1987 and 1990 and is 44 km long with 35 stations. Running from Helwan in the south to New El Marg in the northeast, it carries over 1·5 million people a day. Unlike Cairo’s later metro lines it is equipped with 1·5 kV DC overhead electrification, rather than 750 V DC third rail.
‘The modernisation of Line 1, which Colas Rail helped to build in the 1980s, represents a new challenge. Over the next few years, many of the world’s major cities will have to modernise their underground railway lines to keep pace with the growing demand for mobility among the population. Colas Rail will be there to support its customers and boost the regional economy’, commented Hervé Le Joliff, Chairman of Colas Rail.
