A banking consortium headed by BNP Paribas signed a funding agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for six new power transmission stations. The banks will finance the project with around $209m, reported Al Borsa. The stations will connect the Beni Suef, Burullus, and New Administrative Capital to the national grid.

Siemens and El Sewedy Electric will construct the stations according to an engineering, procurement, and construction, plus finance (EPC + finance) system. A banking official stated that the project comes as a part of the Ministry of Electricity’s plan to improve the electricity transmission network. Accordingly, EETC will use EGP 15b in building and developing transmission stations and electricity transmission lines, as well as electricity control centers by 2019.

The project comes under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the Electricity Ministry and Siemens at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in 2015. The MoU included the development of four existing transmission stations with capacities ranging between 220KW and 500KW. It further included the construction of two new plants. The projects are expected to  finalized by October 2017.

In related news, the Egyptian Minister of Investment, Dalia Khorshid, had witnessed the signing of a loan with BNP Paribas worth $650m for the development of two power stations in Assuit and west Damietta.