The Egyptian National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded France’s Thales, Colas Rail, also of France, and the local Orascom Construction a new contract to design and build the telecommunications, centralised control and ticketing systems for Cairo Metro Line 4 phase 1. ​

The Line 4 project involves the development of a 42-kilometre line and 35 stations, in two development phases.

The first phase will connect the centre of Greater Cairo to the Giza Pyramid Complex in Southwest Greater Cairo. It is expected to take six years to complete and covers the delivery of 19 kilometres of line with 16 stations, a depot and an Operations Control Centre.

Phase 2 will be delivered later and includes an additional 23.5km of line, 19 stations and 92 trains.

A consortium of the local Hassan Allam Construction, Arab Contractors, Petrojet and Concord for Engineering & Contracting is working on the civil works package for the first phase of Line 4.

Rail contracts have made Egypt the region’s most active projects market in recent months, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

 Middle East contract awards: May 2022

In May, NAT awarded an $8bn deal to a consortium of Germany’s Siemens and local firms Arab Contractors and Orascom Construction to construct the second phase of the Greater Cairo-Aswan railway line. The authority also signed a $2bn deal with the same group for phase three of the Luxor-Hurghada railway line.