Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded two local/French consortiums deals worth a combined €270m ($307m) for the third phase of the Cairo Metro’s Line 3.

Both the civils and tracks packages are led by the local Orascom Construction. The civils contract was awarded to a group that includes France’s Bouygues and Vinci, and the local Arab Contractors, while the track works package was awarded to a group that includes TSO of France’s NGE Group and ETF, a subsidiary of France’s Eurovia.

Another Orascom-led team, which includes the UK’s Colas Rail, France’s Alstom and Arab Contractors, had earlier won civils and electromechanical work also for phase 3, worth an estimated $317m, of which $113m was accounted for by Orascom.

Phase 3 will stretch across 18 kilometres of tunnelling and viaduct works, which will include 15 elevated, at-grade and underground stations. French and Europeans funds are providing finance for the phase.