Today, the President of the Republic of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, and his accompanying delegation, who is currently visiting Egypt, inspected stations of the third subway line, and was received by Engineer Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of Transport, and head and leaders of the National Authority for Tunnels.
The tour began, by taking one of the trains of the third line of the metro, heading to the major Umrah workshop for trains of the line, from Adly Mansour Station The central interchange, which will include an integrated service transportation complex and a commercial investment zone on an area of 15 acres, to exchange service between five different means of transportation,” which includes a third line metro station “opened and operated”, a station for the light electric rail (LRT), and a railway station “Cairo” – Suez” and a superjet station, in addition to the frequency bus “Adly Mansour – Al-Salam.
The Minister of Transport welcomed the South Korean president, expressing his happiness and all the employees of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport for his historic visit to one of the important transport projects in Egypt, which expresses joint cooperation in it, embodying the distinguished relations between the political leadership in the two countries and the two friendly peoples, stressing that the directives of President Abdel Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, President of the Republic, is working continuously to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in a way that achieves common interests and contributes to achieving development and prosperity for our peoples.
The minister referred to the fruitful joint cooperation in a number of transport sectors such as railways, the subway and electric traction. Then, during the train ride, the South Korean president listened to a brief explanation of the third subway line project linking east and west Greater Cairo, with a length of 41.2 km and a number of 34 A station, 3 phases of it with a length of 23.5 km and 19 stations have been operated, and the implementation of the last phase is currently underway, with a length of 17.7 km and 15 stations.
The extent of the Korean government’s contribution to the implementation of metro projects was also reviewed, which includes the contract signed with the Korean Hyundai Rotem Company to manufacture and supply 32 air-conditioned trains for the third line, in addition to 8 years of maintenance and massive overhaul. The contract value is 640 million pounds + 317.7 million euros. The foreign part of the contract through the Korean government, as well as reviewing the advantages of Korean trains from inside and outside and the scheme of supplying them, as the number of 18 trains and components of 5 trains of the trains that will be assembled in Simav to transfer expertise to Egyptian technicians and workers, 10 service trains have been entered and are underway Carrying out dynamic tests for the rest of the trains supplied to the workshops to be entered into service successively.
During the train’s entry into the major Umrah workshop, a brief explanation was given of the workshop’s buildings, which is the largest workshop in the Middle East, built on 65 acres, and containing 32 buildings, where heavy and light Umrah, paint work, and vehicle renewals for the third line trains, in addition to its ability to store trains. With a capacity of 30 trains and warehouses to store spare parts for vehicles.
Then the President of South Korea watched a presentation on the joint cooperation between Egypt and South Korea to localize the railway industry in Egypt, through cooperation with the Egyptian National Company for Railway Industries (Nerek) for the localization and supply of 40 metro trains (325 cars) for the second and third lines of the metro The tunnels, in addition to an 8-year period of maintenance in the amount of 560 million dollars for the manufacture of vehicles and an amount of 96 million dollars for maintenance in partnership between Hyundai Rotem, Nerc and the Ministry of Transport, for which a memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Authority for Tunnels, the alliance of Hyundai Rotem and the Egyptian National Company for Railway Industry. (NERIC) in November 2021 on the sidelines of the fourth session of the exhibition and conference on Intelligent Transport for Africa and the Middle East “TRANSMEA 2021” to manufacture 320 vehicles for the second and third lines of the subway, in addition to a period of 8 years of maintenance, with an amount of 560 million dollars for the manufacture of vehicles and 96 million dollars for maintenance.
It is worth mentioning that there are distinguished relations between the Egyptian and South Korean sides, where in the field of railways cooperation is taking place in the project to modernize signaling and communication systems on the 118 km Nagaa Hammadi / Luxor line, which is being implemented by Hyundai Rotem, as well as cooperation in the project to modernize signaling and communication systems and railway engineering works. On the Luxor / High Dam line with a length of 224 km.
In the field of the subway, cooperation and the completion of the manufacture and supply of (20) air-conditioned trains for the first metro line during the period from 2015 to 2017, where 11 trains were manufactured at Hyundai Rotem Company in South Korea and 9 trains were assembled at Simav factory, and the company is currently carrying out maintenance work For 8 years from the date of expiry of the warranty period (two years) for each train.