Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) is currently evaluating the commercial offers submitted by consortiums that submitted a systems package bid for the first phase of Cairo Metro’s Line 4.

NAT received two bids for the contract in August.  One team comprises Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and the local Orascom Construction, and another team comprises Hitachi and Sumitomo, both of Japan.

The price evaluation for the single offer for the rolling stock, from Mitsubishi, is also under way and expected to be completed this month, a source familiar with the project tells MEED.

MEED understands NAT and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) are still negotiating the final loan terms for the project.

Based on the feasibility study undertaken by NAT in 2010, phase 1 of Cairo Metro Line 4 requires an investment of $4bn, of which Jica is understood to have agreed to provide $1.2bn in loan. However, it is still unclear if the size of the financing specified in 2010 will change when the final agreement is reached.

NAT structured the first phase of Cairo Metro Line 4 into four packages. They include two civil works packages, and one package each for the rolling stock and electromechanical systems.

MEED understands the first civil works package for the scheme is to be imminently awarded to the sole bidder, a joint venture (JV) of Japan’s Taisei Corporation and local firm Orascom Construction.

The bid for the second civil works package is under technical evaluation. The Taisei/Orascom JV is also the sole bidder for that contract.

NAT is also planning to undertake a €749m ($872m) upgrade of Cairo Metro Line 1, which first entered service in 1987.

Cairo Metro Line 1, which features 34 stations, was built at a cost of $250m in the 1980s. It has a design capacity of two million passengers a day. The latest available figure indicates that passenger numbers are 1.6 million a day.