Kuwait to loan Egypt $106 million to develop railway

[DJKeefy]

Egypt will receive a $106 million loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) to fund a project that will develop the railways between the four governorates of Qalubiya, Sharqiya, Ismailiya and Port Said, Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported on Wednesday.

Through this project, the Egyptian government seeks to improve the efficiency and safety of the 192 kilometers of railway between these governates, in addition to automating the control and signals systems.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $333.5 million.

The Kuwaiti loan is to be repaid over 25 years, according the KUNA. The first five years will be free of interest, after which the interest rate will be set at 2.5 percent.

The KFAED loan was initially approved by the Egyptian government in June during the tenure of now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi and his cabinet, led by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

KFAED has lent Egypt a total of roughly $2 billion with 35 different loans to finance projects in several sectors. It has also offered Egypt eight fiscal grants worth roughly $6.7 million.

In late September, Egypt's central bank received a $2 billion deposit from Kuwait as part of the $4 billion pledged by the oil-rich nation to bolster the flailing Egyptian economy following Morsi's ouster in July.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/83140.aspx

[LovelyLadyLux]

Development, work, improvements and maintenance to the infrastructure is good.

[Chocolate Eclair]

A rail connection between Luxor and the Red Sea would not go amiss, the transport it would provide will help Luxor diversify. By that movement of manufactured good could reach a Red Sea Port ready for export.

[A-Four]

There was an initial agreement with the Egyptian government and the guy who built and owns El Gourna on the Red Sea, that they would build a railway from there to Edfu, and even possibly, build a new station just outside Luxor, almost next to where the cruise boats at Luxor are moored. This was to be another one of Mubarak's infra-structure projects for Upper Egypt, that did not get off the ground.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Japan and bullet trains. Egypt and ???