THE president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, officially inaugurated the 56.5km East of Nile monorail on March 20.
The opening coincided with the Eid al-Fitr holiday to mark the end of Ramadan, with El-Sisi riding a special train from Al-Fattah Al-Aleem Mosque to Financial and Business District station, passing through stations R1 and R2 in the New Administrative Capital. No date has yet been confirmed for the start of commercial services.
Construction of the monorail, which has 22 stations, commenced in 2019 shortly after a consortium led by Bombardier (now Alstom), and also including Egyptian companies Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors, secured a contract to design, build, operate and maintain both the East of Nile and 45km West of Nile lines for 30 years.
Around 15,000 people have worked on the project, which also created 10,000 indirect jobs. Egypt’s minister of transport, Lieutenant General Kamel El-Wazir, said during the inauguration that the fast, modern and safe monorail system consumes 30% less electricity than electric rail traction systems and will help to alleviate pollution and reduce road congestion.
The elevated infrastructure consists of 2188 piles and 1999 columns, with the 4272 beams manufactured for the project ranging from 10 to 22m in length. El-Wazir added that the monorail has been built in areas where metros and other rail-based modes are difficult to construct, and required minimal utility diversion as well as less land to build.
The line runs from an interchange with metro Line 3 at Cairo Stadium in Nasr City to the Control and Command Centre in the New Administrative Capital, with an end-to-end journey taking 1h 10min. The line is operated with a fleet of 40 four-car Innovia 300 rubber-tyred monorail trains manufactured by Alstom in Britain, with a maximum speed of 80km/h. Services will operate at 3-minute headways initially, but this could be reduced to 90 seconds as demand increases. The monorail line has capacity to transport up to 500,000 passengers per day.
Stations have been equipped with platform screen doors, with each 100m-long and 25m-wide elevated station covering 2500m2. The control centre in the NAC is on a 34ha site and comprises 13 buildings.
The $US 4.5bn project has been partly financed through loans worth €2.5bn with a 14-year repayment period from commercial banks to Egypt’s New Urban Communities Authority (Nuca), arranged by JP Morgan. UK Export Finance (UEF) is guaranteeing 80% of this financing.
West of Nile Line
The West of Nile Line runs from the Mohansheen district in Giza west to 6th of October City, interchanging with metro Line 3 at Wadi El Nile station as well as the new Bashteel main line station in central Cairo.
Land acquisition problems in the early stages of this project meant work has run slightly behind the East of Nile Line and no opening date has yet been announced. Together, at 101.5km in length, both lines form the world’s largest monorail network, surpassing Chongqing’s 98.1km two-line system in China.
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