By Akanimo Sampson
Egypt is currently setting eyes on constructing a 30-kilometer metro line in Cairo, the country’s capital.
That will be the sixth metro line.The government is busy working out a deal with an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management.Negotiations is being handled by top officials the Ministry of Transport.
Their talks will result in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bechtel Corporation, the American company, for the construction of a 30-kilometer Cairo Metro Line 6.Transport Minister, Kamel al-Wazir, who made the development public affirmed that the two parties have had a look at the contracts and quickly reached a near agreement. ”We told them to submit an offer on paper.
If we reach an agreement, we will begin working at once and expedite all the contracts and agreements”, the minister said.
This project is estimated to cost around $5 billion. He assured that the North African country has already secured finance for the metro line from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan.
Egypt’s National Railways Industry Company, on the other hand, has signed an agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem to modernize Cairo’s metro system.
This agreement covers the manufacturing of more than 800 metro cars and the supply of new lines, which comes as part of the modernisation of the first and second Cairo metro lines.
Under the first phase of the agreement, according to minister al-Wazir, local components will make up 29.9 percent of metro cars in the first two years, rising to 50 percent in the following couple of years, and then jumping to 75 percent after six years.
Continuing, he said the increased use of local materials will help to make the North African country more self-sufficient and reduce its dependence on imported goods. ”Any surplus products will be exported to other African countries”, the minister said, adding that the South Korean company is now developing signal systems in the area between Nagei Hamadi and Luxor.
