$9 Billion High Speed Train Connecting Egypt’s Ain Sokhna to Alamein in Progress

On September 3, 2020, Egyptian-Chinese Consortium Samcrete Engineers & Contractors won the bid for executing the Ain Sokhna to Alamein high-speed electric rail with the cost of nine billion dollars, reported Al Masry Al Youm, attributing an unnamed source.

The announcement of the train plan was in February of last year when Deputy Minister of Transportation Amr Shaat revealed that the project will take 30 months to be executed.

The train is said to cover 543 kilometers at a speed of 250 kilometers and will also pass through the cities of the New Administrative Capital, Sixth of October, Burj al-Arab and Alexandria, making it the first electric railway in Egypt since 1854.

Samcrete was chosen by the Egyptian government after an international tender was launched which nine international and local consortia including Samcrete submitted for.

In 2019, there was news of expanding the project to two different lines, one linking 6th of October City with other governorates in Upper Egypt until Aswan and one beginning in Ain El Sokhna and passing along Hurgada and Marsa Alam until Luxor.

The project represents a turning point for Egypt’s transportation sector, Samcrete CEO and Managing Director Sherif Nazmy told Al-Masry Al-Youm, considering the project to be a second Suez Canal as it connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in a three-hour trip.

The government currently has plans to largely reform the railway system through four transportation projects now in progress. According to Enterprise, in January Railway officials reported that EGP 55 bn will be spent from 1 July 2020 to 1 July 2022.

In addition, in a speech at the Council of Arab Transport Ministers last year, the Minister stated that a railway project linking Egypt and Sudan is also in progress. The rail will measure 600 km and will start from Alexandria and end at Khartoum in a direct trip.

There is also priority for adopting industry technology in Egypt, which will be done through the agreement between the Chinese Partner on a factory in East Port Said that will be used to manufacture and transfer knowledge of the technology of the train wagons to Egypt, reported Egypt Independent.