CAIRO, Aug 1, 2018 (MENA) - Egypt's Transport Minister Hisham Arafat conferred on Wednesday with French Ambassador to Egypt Stephane Romatet on means of bolstering cooperation in railway and metro projects. A statement released by the Ministry of Transport said talks covered means of increasing safety measures in cooperation with SNCF, the French national railway company, along with an expected visit by Alstom company to check on Giza-Beni Suef railway line in the coming days. The French Ambassador pointed out to a letter sent by the French government to Egypt to sign a cooperation protocol to supply trains for the third metro line. The French side also voiced readiness to take steps to provide trains to the first metro line after the completion of its infrastructure development work. The meeting also reviewed the French government's funding of the fourth phase of the third metro line in cooperation with the French company RATP. Arafat, for his part, asserted that the ministry is attaching great importance to increasing rail safety levels, noting that a project to upgrade the rail signalling system over an area of 1089 km is currently under way at a total cost of LE17 billion.
