Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) is expected to award the first civil works contract for the opening phase of Cairo Metro Line 4 in the second half of 2018, a source familiar with the project tells MEED.

MEED understands final price negotiations are still ongoing between the sole bidder, a team comprising Japan’s Taisei Corporation and local firm Orascom Construction, and the project client.

The first phase of Line 4 will comprise two civil works packages and one package each for rolling stock and electromechanical systems.

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

Two Japanese firms – Sojitz Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation – are expected to submit bids for the rolling stock package on 16 May.

Four groups sought to prequalify and are expected to bid for the systems contract by 10 June. They include:

• Mitsubishi/Orascom Construction
• Marubeni (Japan)
• Hitachi (Japan)/Sumitomo (Japan)
• Toyo (Japan)/Mitsui(Japan)

NAT awarded Nippon Koei the consultancy contract for the scheme in October 2016.

Line 4 will be constructed in two phases and will run for 43 kilometres from west to east Cairo.

It will connect 6th October and the New Cairo satellite cities with the existing metro network, catering to areas including Al-Ahram, Faisal, Giza, Nasr City and Al-Azhar University.

The first phase will have a total length of 18.8km and feature 17 stations. It will extend from the multimodal station west of the Ring Road to the Grand Egyptian Museum and on to El-Remayah Square to link with Giza station on Line 2, El-Malek el-Saleh station on Line 1, and to Al-Fustat station.

MEED understands Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) is providing a significant portion of the funding for the first phase of Line 4, which is estimated to cost $4bn.