French contractors Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bouygues Travaux Publics, and their Egyptian joint partners, Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors, have confirmed the award of the €264m ($293m) contract for the construction of Line 3 phase 4A of the Cairo Metro between the Haroun and El-Nozha stations.

The 34-month Phase 4A contract continues on from the second phase, which began operating in May 2014, more than six months ahead of schedule. Phase 4A consists of 5.15 kilometres of tunnel and five underground stations on Line 3, the east-west link across the Egyptian capital.

MEED reported in March that Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded Vinci and Bouygues the construction contract to complete work on the fourth phase of the third metro line in Cairo.

Also in March, France’s Alstom was awarded two contracts totalling $85m to supply signalling systems and infrastructure work for phase 4A of Line 3.

The first deal involves the signalling system, while the second contract involves infrastructure work on the same project. Alstom was also awarded similar contracts for lines 1 and 2.

In December last year, MEED reported a $428.7m agreement between France and Cairo to fund the purchase of 64 trains for the Cairo Metro.

The agreement was signed with France’s ambassador to Egypt on 14 December, and will involve Paris providing Cairo with $214.4m as a concessional loan, which is to be repaid over 53 years. The loan will have a 20-year grace period at an annual interest rate of 0.1 per cent. The second half of the finance will come in the form of credit facilities by French credit company Coface.

According to Naglaa el-Ahwany, Egypt’s international cooperation minister, French financing of Cairo’s metro network totalled $1.5bn between 1979 and 2012.