China’s Exim Bank approves $400mn loan for Egypt’s light rail phase III

China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim) approved a $400 million loan for Egypt on Wednesday to finance the third phase of the light rail system (LRT) project, Bloomberg Asharq reported.

The light rail transit system is a sustainable means of green mass transportation as it runs on electricity instead of diesel. It is carried out by Egyptian ministry of transportation, a consortium of local companies. This is in addition to the international Chinese consortium of AVIC international and China Railway Group, which has manufactured its trains, and the French RATP Dev will be responsible for its management and operation.

Over three phases, the total LRT route will stretch 103.3 km with 19 stations and is set to accommodate 500,000 passengers per day. The project will link Cairo, Obour, El-Mostakbal (Future), El-Shorouk, New Heliopolis, Badr, the Industrial Zone, 10th of Ramadan cities with the New Administrative Capital and will run over a route of more than 100 kilometres.

In July 2022, Egypt inaugurated an initial 70 km route of 12 stations after securing a $1.2 billion loan from the Exim in 2019.

The third phase of the project will be 20.4 km route of four stations.