President Abdel Fattah El Sisi issued a decree No. 76 of 2019 approving a government agreement signed between Egypt and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the development and renovation of first line of Cairo Metro.
According to the agreement, the EIB will provide a €350 billion facilitated loan to develop Cairo's oldest metro line.
Last year, Egypt revealed a plan to renovate the Cairo's metro system with a fund of €205 million from a deal signed between the government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The EBRD fund will be used to change the rail tracks used in the first line, as well as renovate stations and trains.
The transportation minister said that around 900,000 passengers use the old metro line daily in the summer, and 1,200,000 use it in the winter.
Egypt has repeatedly hiked metro ticket prices after the partial lifting of fuel subsidies.
The last price increase was in May, when ticket prices were raised based on a new zoning system, ranging from EGP 3 to EGP 7 per ticket, up from a flat rate of EGP 2.
First launched in 1987, Cairo's metro, which operates throughout the capital and surrounding areas and runs both above and below ground at a top speed of 80 kilometers an hour, is one of the country's fastest means of transportation.
Cairo’s underground network accommodates more than four million passengers per day.
Egypt plans to construct two additional lines in order to connect Cairo, Giza and the country’s new administrative capital by 2030, bringing the total number of metro lines to six.
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