An Egyptian-Chinese consortium bags the tender to design, finance and operate a high-speed rail project that will link the cities of Ain Sokhna and Alamein in Egypt. The high-speed rail project will cover 543 kms and will attain speeds of 250kmph, at a cost of $9 billion. It will also pass through the cities of Sixth of October, Burj Al-Arab and Alexandria.
According to Egypt Independence, the supreme committee supervising the project had chosen the offer of the Egyptian consortium, led by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and Egypt’s Samcrete, Arab Organization for Industrialization.
The Egyptian government had launched an international tender for the project, which saw nine international consortia submit bids for the project. A committee was formed from the ministries of housing and transport to examine those bids.
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It said that the bids were narrowed down to two consortia – the first which has been chosen for the project; with the second being AVIC, China State and CREC from China, Siemens from Germany, France Railways, Orascom and the Arab Contractors.
“The project represents a major turning point as Egypt now joins the list of countries using express trains, thus completing the big boom in the transportation sector and the infrastructure and development projects that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi started,” said Sherif Nazmy, the CEO and Managing Director of Samcrete.
Nazmy added that, this project is considered to be a second Suez Canal, because it connects the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea in a three-hour trip, accelerating the pace of development by transporting passengers and goods.
He further affirmed that for the first time in Egypt since 1854, an electric railway line is being implemented, at a length of 543 kms and a speed of 250 kms – the longest and largest line in the Middle East.
An agreement is in place with the Chinese partner to jointly manufacture train coaches in east Port Said by building a factory to manufacture and transfer technology to Egypt.
