Two contracts worth more than $2.3 billion have been awarded for Egypt’s planned new mass transit line. The Cairo Metro Line 4 project will entail 19 kilometers of track and 17 stations.

Egypt’s state-owned civil engineering company, National Authority for Tunnels, announced in late November that a consortia led by Egypt-based Arab Contractors won a $1.65-billion deal to construct 12 stations spread over 13.7 km. Other consortium members are Petrojet, Concord Engineering & Contracting and Hassan Allam Construction.

Japanese global trading firm Mitsubishi Corp. and Egypt’s Orascom Construction won the second contract worth $800 million for the line’s signals, power supply, telecommunications, platform screen doors, automatic fare collection, track work and depot workshop.

 Mitsubishi will supply the rail equipment and perform administrative work in its $450-million segment of the contract, while Orascom, which recently completed Cairo Metro Line 3 Phase 4B, will carry out civil works and construction of the train operation-control center and other facilities at an estimated cost of $350 million.

The two contracts are the first phase of the 42-km-long Cairo Metro Line 4, which will ultimately move 2.5 million passengers a day. The line will link 6 October City and New Cairo and carry tourists to the Egyptian pyramids area in Giza and Grand Egyptian Museum, currently under construction.

Financing for the line is provided by Japanese International Corporation Agency via the Special Technical Economic Partnership (STEP), a scheme that promotes assistance for projects that embrace Japanese technology and know-how.