Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded Vinci and Bouygues Travaux Publics, both of France, the construction contract to complete work on the fourth phase of the third metro line in Cairo.

Phase four of Line 3, which is 15 kilometres, will extend from the Heliopolis area to Cairo airport.

Line 3 of the Cairo metro system has a total length of almost 43.5 kilometres, serving 36 stations and is being built in four phases.

In December last year, MEED reported a $428.7m agreementbetween 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.