Vinci, a leader in construction and concessions market, along with French conglomerate Bouygues Construction have won a contract worth €1.1 billion ($1.22 billion) for the proposed elevated stations design for the Cairo Metro project.

The 67-month contract awarded by the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) covers civil engineering for the third phase of Line 3, including 17.7 km of new line and 15 stations (eight underground, five elevated and two at ground level), said a statement from Vinci.

The scope of work includes construction of a new tunnel under the Nile.

The project award demonstrated the renewed confidence of the NAT in the joint venture led by Vinci Construction Grands Projets, alongside Bouygues Construction’s subsidiary Bouygues Travaux Publics and their Egyptian partners Orascom Construction and Arabco Contractors, it stated.

Once completed, Line 3 will increase the overall length of the Cairo metro system to 100 km and serve five million passengers daily, said senior officials at the signing ceremony held recently in the presence of Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his French counterpart François Hollande.

The JV has been building the metro system for North Africa’s largest urban area since 1981.

Work will start in the residential and administrative parts of the capital, including Zamalek Island, and end in the city’s densely populated and highly urbanised northern and southern districts.

The project will generate about 5,000 jobs and continue the longstanding French-Egyptian cooperation in underground works.

It will also offer French SMEs a large number of opportunities. In the previous phase of the project, handed over in 2014, the joint venture called on more than 600 French SMEs as suppliers and subcontractors.

Driven by strong economic and population growth, Cairo is now North Africa’s largest city. The urban area has 16 million inhabitants and a very high population density of 73,500 people per sq km, said the statement.

Automobile traffic has become highly congested. The expansion of the Cairo metro will help to efficiently and effectively regulate traffic and substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition, the joint venture is also working on Phase 4a of Line 3, which will extend the system towards the eastern part of the city. The contract was signed in February last year and the handover is set for the end of 2018.-TradeArabia News Service