CAIRO: Egypt is currently in discussions with Italy to develop a high-speed railway line between the capital Cairo and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the minister of transport said on Tuesday. “We should get the results in the next two months. Our feeling is that it's feasible,” Mohamed Mansour told Reuters on the sidelines of a Mediterranean economic forum in Milan. According to the ministry, once the study can be completed, Cairo plans to proceed with the financing of the project via the private sector. “It will be a public tender open to all investors,” the minister added. It would be the first major railway project in Egypt's recent history. The British constructed a majority of the current railroads and the Egyptian government has done little to improve the sector. This past May, Mansour and his Italian counterpart, Altero Matteoli, earmarked 550,000 euros ($781,300) for the study, carried out by technical staffs from Egypt and the Italian state-owned railway company, Ferrovie dello Stato. “(Ferrovie dello Stato unit) Italferr is doing the study to tell us the route that (the line) will take, the number of passengers and also the cost of the investment,” the minister continued. According to the minister, Egypt is expected to tender the project in order to build the motorway between Cairo and Alexandria in the next two or three months if all goes well. It is unclear how fast the train will travel and if it will drastically cut down the already short trip from the capital to the second largest city. The current journey takes around two hours and 15 minutes. The Egyptian capital Cairo and its Mediterranean port city of Alexandria are about 200 km apart. BM
