Transport Minister: France delighted to finance fifth and sixth metro line

Transport Minister Ibrahim al-Demery, who spoke with the French foreign trade minister on Thursday, said the minister welcomed cooperation and offered to provide technical and financial support through grants and loans to develop Egypt's public transportation infrastructure.

Demery, who was on a visit to France, said he discussed ways of cooperation in public transportation, including the financing of the fourth stage of the third metro line, the necessary studies for the fifth and sixth lines through a grant from the French government, the operation of a bullet train, the financing of a railway network for signals, and the renovation of the first and second line mobile units through the French Development Agency, the French government and the Export-Import Bank of France.

He also discussed the automation of the management system and the funding of the Assiut-Aswan signals system.

Demery signed an agreement with Pascal Soares, the deputy executive director for international relations at the Thales Group, for the French Thales University to develop the Egyptian Transport Academy with latest equipment, technologies and laboratories in order to keep up with the national project for the development of the railway network, especially the bullet train project between Cairo and Alexandria that is scheduled to start at the end of this year.

“The second railway network in the world was built in Egypt,” he said. “We must retain our leadership in this field with trained cadres and latest technologies.”

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm