Egypt’s Ministry of Housing, Utilities & Urban Communities and the Transport Ministry have received bids for the contract to build two monorail systems in the greater Cairo area.

MEED understands three of the six prequalified consortiums submitted a bid for the projects.

The teams that submitted a bid are:

• Bombardier (Canada) / Orascom (local) / Arab Contractors (local)
• China Railway (China) / Samcrete (local) / SNC Lavalin – Atkins (Canada) / Egyptian Railways Equipment (Semaf) (local)
• Scomi (Malaysia) / Arabtec (local) / Ministry of Military Production for Projects and Engineering (local) / Shaker Consultancy Group (local)

The Nasr District to New Cairo Capital monorail will be 52 kilometres, while the Giza to 6 October City monorail will be 35km.

It is unclear if one or two consortiums will be selected for the two projects.

The government plans to procure the projects using an engineering, procurement, construction plus finance model. A consortium of Lebanon-based Khatib & Alami and Spanish firm Getinsa Ingenieria prepared the terms of reference for the contracts.

A consortium led by Canada’s Bombardier, and another team led by China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), had previously submitted an offer for the Giza to 6 October City monorail system.

The monorail schemes are expected to help decongest roads and streets in Cairo, and provide connectivity between the new urban centres outside the capital – such as 6 October City and New Cairo Capital – to the capital city’s existing transport networks and airport.