THE FIRST phase of Cairo's underground third line, inaugurated on 21 February, adds five new stations to the rail network. The latest line is the initial phase of an expansion that will at the end link Cairo University in Giza with the capital's international airport. The newly-opened route comprises five metro stations which link Ataba and Abbasiya squares. When complete, the third line, constructed by a French company, will stretch 43.5 kilometres and connect Cairo Airport with Imbaba and Mohandessin via 34 metro stations. The second phase is set to connect Abbasiya with the northeastern suburb of Heliopolis. Sixty per cent of construction work on this phase is complete, according to Egypt's Transport Minister Galal El-Said. "Completion of the entire line is planned after four or five years," El-Said added. Progress, however, has been disrupted several times. In September 2009, work on the Ataba-Abbasiya phase was delayed after a landslide at the construction site on Al-Geish Street. The website for Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels hails Cairo's metro system, describing it as Egypt's "fourth pyramid".
