Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded a $4.5-billion rail construction contract, on an engineering-procurement-construction + finance basis, to a consortium of Germany’s Siemens Mobility and Egyptian firms Orascom Construction S.A.E. and The Arab Contractors for the first phase of a planned 1800-kilometer high-speed electrified rail line.
Phase one of the project entails construction of 660 km of rail, with at least 18 stations. Orascom and Arab Contractors will carry out the track-laying works for the line that will link the port city of Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea to Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. The alignment will run along the sandy Mediterranean Coast line to the western edge of the Nile delta, around Cairo and then to the Red Sea in a more sandy environment, according to a Siemens spokesperson.