EXCLUSIVE: Egypt receives bids for final metro line package

02 September 2018
Japan International Cooperation Agency will finance the metro scheme

Two of the four prequalified bidders for the first phase of Cairo Metro’s Line 4 submitted an offer for the electromechanical systems package on 28 August, according to a source familiar with the project.

The prequalified groups were:

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

Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels (NAT), the project client,  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.

On 16 May, NAT received a single bid, from Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, for the rolling stock package.

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

Cairo Metro Line 1 features 34 stations and was built at a cost of $250m in the 1980s. It has a design capacity of 2 million passengers a day. The latest available figure indicates that passenger numbers are 1.6 million a day.

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