Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem the $134.5m contract to supply and maintain 48 metro cars for the second line of the Cairo Metro.

According to local media reports, the trains are expected to be delivered by 2023.

The contract includes an eight-year maintenance and repair clause, which ends in 2031.

MEED understands the trains have a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour (kph). Line 2 extends 21.6km and has 20 stations.

The contract marks the third rolling stock deal between NAT and Hyundai Rotem.

In early 2017, NAT awarded the firm the $377.5m contract for the supply of 256 metro cars for the third phase of Line 3.

The contract similarly included an eight-year maintenance clause for the train cars.

The 256 cars destined for Line 3 are to be financed by the South Korean government through an agreement with the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), with export financing provided by the Ministry of Strategy & Finance and Export-Import Bank of Korea.

Hyundai Rotem had previously supplied 180 metro cars for Cairo Metro Line 1.