The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to approve the provision of a sovereign loan of up to EUR 130 million to the Arab Republic of Egypt to finance the rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure of Cairo Metro Line I. The loan will cover urgent infrastructure investments in signalling, telecoms, controls and track works. It is expected that the project will be co-financed by a sovereign loan of up to EUR 150 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and EUR 50 million from the Agence Francaise de Developpement(AfD). Total cost of the project is EUR 330 million.
The project will be implemented by the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT), a government agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and will be carefully co-ordinated with the Egyptian Company for Metro (ECM), the operator, as the rehabilitation will take place while the line is in operation.
The Bank has developed an Integrated Approach (IA) to Cairo’s urban transport sector which comprises a series of investments across all modes of urban transportation in Greater Cairo focusing on improving functionality, quality and efficiency of public transport services. The objective of the IA is to achieve greater commercialisation of services, enhanced private sector participation, improved regulation, and increased opportunities for on the job training as well as the use of carbon monetisation mechanisms.
The proposed project is the second of a series of investments presented under the IA. It is designed to provide the needed rehabilitation of Cairo Metro Line I’s existing infrastructure with an aim to restore it to its original design capabilities and potentially reduce traffic headway (minimum possible time between two trains) to increase capacity through introduction of CBTC signalling technology.
Since its establishment, in 1983, NAT has successfully implemented the construction of 75 kilometres of metro lines, worth over EGP 23 billion (EUR 1.0 billion). Cairo Metro is the only underground network in Africa, to date.
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