Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (Nat) is now expected to issue the tender documents for phase 3A of Cairo metro’s Line 3 in December.

“The tender documents for [Cairo metro L3] phase three are still under revision and not yet issued by Nat,” says a source close to the project.

Tender documents were initially expected in October (MEED 21:3:10).

Phase three is broken down into a series of construction deals:

• Phase 3A will be 4km long, running from Attaba Station to Kit Kat Station in the west of the city and it will have four underground stations.
• Phase 3B will be 5.7km and will run from Kit Kat Station to Rod el-Farag in the north of Cairo and will have six stations plus a workshop.
• Phase 3C will be 6.9km and will run from Kit Kat Station to junction of Line 2 at Cairo University Station in the south of the city.
• A fourth stage of phase three is also planned. France’s Systra is the consultant on the expansion of the Cairo metro.

The construction of 40-kilometre Line 3 has been broken down into four phases. Work is already under way on the first and second phases of Line 3. A consortium of France’s Alstom and the local Orascom Construction Industries is working on this phase, which involves the construction of a 5.5km section of track with five underground stations. This is scheduled for completion in October 2011.

Phase two involves the construction of a 7.2km section of track with four underground stations. France’s Vinci leads the consortium that won the civil engineering contract for phase two in June.

A fourth phase of the line will eventually connect the airport to the centre of the city. Nat is also planning to build a further three lines that will add 60km to the metro network by 2022.