Egypt scales up metro expansion by EGP 600B amid soaring rail authority debt
Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) plans to spend roughly 600 billion Egyptian pounds ($10.7 billion) to complete subway and electric rail projects between 2026 and 2030, according to an internal investment blueprint reviewed by Al Manassa.
The ambitious capital layout will drive the transport authority’s aggregate expenditures to approximately 2 trillion pounds (around $36 billion) by 2030, following an infrastructure push that absorbed roughly 1.4 trillion pounds ($25 billion) between 2014 and the end of 2025.
The sovereign expansion comes as the state firm cements its status as Egypt’s most heavily indebted economic authority, with current-year budget projections anticipating domestic and external loans exceeding 275 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) to underwrite its balance sheet.
Under the target blueprint, transit officials intend to scale up the nation’s commuter capacity nearly threefold, projecting daily passenger volume to jump from 5 million to 14 million by 2030.
To absorb the surge, NAT aims to expand its operating fleet to roughly 670 trains from the current 230 units, while boosting total metro and electric rail trackage to 2,889 kilometers across the country, up from today’s 2,376 kilometers.
The investment plan also introduces a commercial freight mandate to electric traction lines for the first time, establishing a target to haul approximately 14 million metric tons of cargo annually by 2030, an operational segment that currently carries zero volume.
At the core of the state portfolio sits a 2,250-kilometer high-speed electric rail network spread across four priority lines, running parallel to regional expansions across Greater Cairo and Alexandria.
Slated for delivery over the next four years are the 19-kilometer Phase 1 of Cairo Metro Line 4—popularly known as the Haram Street Metro—alongside Phases 3 and 4 of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, which will add a combined 35 kilometers.
The buildout follows the July 2022 rollout of the initial two LRT phases, which cover 68 kilometers and carried a financing price tag of $1.2 billion backed by the Export-Import Bank of China.
Further capital works designated in the state document include the construction of the 38-kilometer Cairo Metro Line 6 connecting Al-Khusus with New Maadi, the completion of the 43.8-kilometer West Nile Monorail servicing 6th of October City, and the 21.7-kilometer Alexandria Metro project.
Authority planners have also slated the 13.2-kilometer rehabilitation of the historic Raml Tramway in Alexandria, alongside the separate 21.7-kilometer Abu Qir Metro initiative running between the Abu Qir terminal and the central Misr Railway Station in Alexandria.
To keep current construction operations solvent, the tunneling authority is finalizing a 29 billion pound ($520 million) syndicated facility from a consortium of nine domestic banks to bankroll local contractors working on High-Speed Rail Line 1 and LRT Phase 3 in the New Administrative Capital, according to an authority board member who spoke earlier to Al Manassa.
On the legacy transit grid, the investment plan targets the modernization of the 44-kilometer Cairo Metro Line 1 through systemic overhauls of signaling, telecommunications, and automated train control hardware.
The line program includes the technical rehabilitation and maintenance of 23 active trains, paired with the procurement and delivery of 55 newly manufactured trainsets from France’s Alstom SA.
The borrowing campaign extends across foreign credit markets as well, with the Ministry of Transport securing preliminary commitments from three international institutions for 1.5 billion euros in concessional financing to back the tunnel authority’s project pipeline over the coming years, local financial portal Al Mal reported.