Egypt signed a contract with Siemens Mobility on Saturday evening to build a 2,000 kilometres of high-speed rail network in the country, the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) said.
The deal between NAT, Siemens Mobility, Orascom Construction, and Arab Contractors to establish the world’s sixth largest high-speed rail system, Siemens said.
Siemens’s share in the contract reaches 8.1 billion euros ($8.7bn) and includes the initial contract of 2.7 billion euros signed in September 2021 for the first line of the project.
The project will include three lines and will permit about 500 million journeys annually, Siemen said. The first line will connect Ain Sokna city on the Red Sea with Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh as it will extend for 660 kilometres.
The second line will mileage 1,100 kilometres linking Cairo in the north with Aswan’s Abu Simbel in the south, while the third line will reach Luxor in Upper Egypt with Hurghada city on the Red Sea.
The new rail network will be electrified entirely, which will decrease CO2 pollutants with 70 percent compared to existing bus or car transportation.
In addition, it will equip the entire rail network with 41 Velaro eight-car high-speed trains, 94 Desiro high-capacity four-car regional train sets and 41 Vectron freight locomotives, Siemens announced.
al-Sisi witnessed the signing of the contract, which according to Siemens will connect 60 cities nationwide via trains that can operate up to 230 km/hour.
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The new electric train network is an integration for the productive cooperation between Egypt and Germany in the infrastructure field, al-Sisi stressed. Also, it will represent a great addition to the transportation system and mark a new era for railways in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East, he added.
The project will afford about 40,000 job opportunities in Egypt, as well to 6,700 jobs provided indirectly in Egyptian suppliers, the German company said.
