Egypt's President, Abdelfattah El-Sisi, on Sunday issued a decision approving a grant between Egypt, represented by the Ministry of International Cooperation, and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), to fund a railway project between Egypt and Sudan.
A presidential decree, published in the official gazette, approved a 750,000-Kuwaiti dinar ($2.5 million) grant to contribute to conducting a technical, economic and environmental feasibility study for a rail line project, under a deal signed on April 7, 2022.
The deal came as part of the activities of the joint annual meetings of Arab financial institutions, held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
According to the deal, the Kuwaiti Fund would contribute in making a feasibility study to determine the technical, economic and financial feasibility of the project, and study the environmental and social impact.
The Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation had previously said the project comes as part of Egypt’s interest in reinforcing the cooperation between Cairo and Khartoum, along with achieving economic and social integration and unlocking the sustainable development potentials with the neighboring country.
In February, Egypt’s Transport Minister Kamel el Wazir announced that preliminary studies on the first railway line between Egypt and Sudan have been completed.
The first stage of the railway links Aswan to Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, at a length of 285 kilometers, and the second stage, which will reach Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan, is set to be 80 kilometers long.
The project was first proposed at a meeting of Arab transport ministers in Cairo in 2010.
However, it had only started to take effect when Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi visited Sudan in 2018.
