At total cost of EGP 12 billion (US$1.7 billion), Egypt's President Adly Mansour, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and Transportation Minister Ibrahim El-Demeiri have inaugurated today the second phase of Cairo's underground third line. Speaking to Amwal Al Ghad on Wednesday, Chairman of National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) Ismail El-Nagdy stated that the new phase –around 7.7 kilometers long –contains four tunnel stations (Cairo's exhibition, Stadium, Koleyet Al-Banat and Al-Ahram) and will link between Abbasiya and the northeastern suburb of Heliopolis. It will transport around 600,000 passengers per day along with the first phase, which links two of Cairo busiest squares: Atatba, just south of downtown, and Abbasiya, several kilometres to the northeast, he added. Cairo Metro, the first metro network in Africa, has been operational since 1990. The network consists of two lines, and a further two are planned. The top official further referred that 7 railcars have been imported for the second phase, with total cost of EGP one billion, from local railcar manufacturer Semaf - affiliate of Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) and Japanese Mitsubishi.
