Egypt has awarded a feasibility study contract for an electrified passenger and freight railway line between the Mediterranean ports of Port Said West and Abu Qir Port and a dry port in New Damietta.

The tripartite agreement was signed between the National Authority for Tunnels, the General Authority for Land and Dry Ports, and the consortium of El Didi Group and Gama Construction.

Sherif Mohamed Saeed, Vice President-Business Development Infrastructure, Gama Construction, said the project cost had been estimated at $5 billion.

"The project would be developed in two phases under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model with construction scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022 and complete in 2025," he told Zawya Projects.

Other consortium members include Al Raeid Engineering Consultants as local engineering consultancy partner; Germany's Deutsche Bahn as main engineering consultancy partner and the UAE-based Al Maleya as the financial consultant.

The consortium also includes two public sector companies, namely The Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport and Damietta Container & Cargo Handling Company (DCHC), to develop and operate the planned dry port.

Saeed said the feasibility study would also investigate different financing models, BOT included, for the dry port project.

The transport ministry said in a statement that the railway line, with a total length of 250 kilometres, would run parallel to the international coastal road and link the cities of Port Said, Damietta, New Damietta, Gamasa, New Mansoura, Baltim, Edco, and Abu Qir; the coastal ports of Port Said West, Damietta Sea Port and Abu Qir Port, the Damietta dry port and existing railway network in the region.

"The project would be the first modern electric railway line to run along the width of Delta and integrate the existing railway network in the [Suez] canal cities,"

Abdel Fatah El Didi, chairman of El Didi Group, told Zawya projects that the project would increase international trade, develop port capacities, reduce transit times inside ports, and create direct and indirect jobs.

Gehad Saleh, Executive Director and Founder of Almalya, said global financial institutions would fund the project.

(Reporting by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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