Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels has signed an 876 million Euro contract with the French train manufacturing company, Alstom to upgrade Cairo’s oldest metro line.
The contract will include the supply of 55 nine-car Metropolis EMUs as well as an eight-year maintenance contract for the upgrade of the 44.3km Cairo Metro Line 1 which was launched in 1987 and has the capacity to move approximately 2.5 million passengers per day between El Marg and Helwan on the eastern side of the Nile.
In a statement issued by Alstom, it said each of the nine-car 1.5kv dc trains will have a capacity for 2,580 passengers with the interiors featuring wide corridors reflective of Cairo’s rich history and culture, a dedicated women’s area, real-time passenger information screens, dynamic route maps, video displays, and video surveillance.
The company also stated that the contract includes the supply of its HealthHub predictive maintenance system which will help save up to 20% in preventative maintenance labour and 15% in materials consumption and that Maintenance will be conducted at a depot in partnership with the Egyptian Company for Metros (ECM) which is responsible for the operations of line 1.
The signing of the contract follows an agreement signed in June between the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire and the Egyptian Minister of Transport Kamel El Wazir where France is expected to finance through a €776m concessional loan with a 25-year repayment period and a 15-year grace period.
