The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy will select between the State Grid Corporation of China and Egypt’s Elsewedy Electric in order to construct a transmission line from Samalut to Naga Hammadi with a capacity of 500kV, reported Daily News Egypt.

Sources with the Ministry stated that the technical committee at the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) will meet on the mid December in order to review the submitted proposal prices in order to choose one company to lead the project. Accordingly, the selected firm will build 1,200 electric towers that aim to strengthen the electricity distribution to Upper Egypt with a 380kV voltage, to be completed by June 2017.

The project comes under Egypt’s drive to enhance power coverage across the nation. The Ministry of Electricity has allocated EGP 33b to improve and support the electricity grid until 2018 in order to suit the new capacities. The Minister of Electricity, Mohamed Shaker, stated that the ministry’s strategy aims to include the new capacities generated from projects in the ‘Urgent Plan’ from 2015, as well as Siemens’ three plants in Beni Suef, Burullus, and the New Capital. Furthermore, the ministry’s strategy includes allocating around EGP 18b for supporting the transmission lines, and EGP 15b for the distribution lines.