Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation is scheduled to sign a contract on supplying the rolling stock of the first phase of Cairo metro line four, a statement by the Egyptian transportation ministry read on Saturday. Transportation minister Kamel El-Wazir and Japan's Ambassador to Egypt Masaki Noke mulled the latest updates on a technical offer presented by Mitsubishi to manufacture and supply rolling stock (CP412). The two officials agreed on further meetings between the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) and Mitsubishi to ink the contract. Orascom Construction PLC and Mitsubishi Corporation signed a similar deal over the same modernised line. El-Wazir and Noke discussed cooperation over the maintenance and overhauling of the current metro's second line fleet, which were supplied by Mitsubishi in 1996, to increase their efficiency. Saturday's meeting comes a few months after a consortium between leading engineering contractor Orascom Construction PLC and Mitsubishi Corporation signed a $800 million contract to construct the first phase of line four of the Cairo metro. The scope of the work includes signalling, building a power supply, establishing telecommunications, building a platform screen door, automatic fare collection, track work, and building a depot. The contract was signed with NAT, with Orascom's share of the turnkey contract set at $350 million. The first phase of this underground line will extend for 19 kilometres, through 16 stations, between the centre of Greater Cairo and the Pyramids area in Giza. The project to construct this mass rapid transport metro line's first phase will be funded by the Japanese International Corporation Agency via a Japanese yen loan, under the condition of the Special Technical Economic Partnership, which is the first to be implemented in Egypt.
