EGYPT: The National Authority for Tunnels has awarded a consortium of Mitsubishi Corp and Orascom Construction the US$800m Railway Systems, Track & Depot Works Package CP411 contract for Cairo metro Line 4 Phase 1.
This will run 19 km southwest from central Cairo to the Giza Pyramid area, with 16 stations.
Orascom’s US$350m share of the contact includes civil works and construction of the control centre. Mitsubishi will supply the railway systems including track, signalling, power supplies, telecoms, platform screen doors, automatic fare collection and depot equipment, which it said would be based on ‘advanced railway technologies developed in Japan’.
The contract is being funded through Japan International Co-operation Agency’s first Special Terms for Economic Partnership yen-loan project in Egypt.
Mitsubishi said ongoing urbanisation has resulted in rapid population and traffic growth in Cairo, making the development of public transport infrastructure a matter of urgency.
Line 4 also will also carry tourist traffic, taking visitors to the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum which is being built by Orascom Construction and BESIX.
