BERLIN: Egypt has signed a contract with industrial manufacturing company Siemens’ rail and traffic unit and its consortium partners to build about 2,000 kilometres of high-speed railways, the German group said on Saturday.

The deal between Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) and a consortium of Siemens Mobility, Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors will create the world’s sixth largest high-speed rail system, Siemens said.

“It is the biggest order in the history of Siemens”, Siemens Chief Executive Roland Busch said in a statement.

The project is part of Egypt’s extensive transport infrastructure investments over the past few years.

Once completed, Egypt’s high-speed network will consist of three rail lines: the one to link its Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts Siemens had dubbed a “Suez Canal on rails” in September, and the two lines announced on Saturday.

Siemens added that its subsidiary’s share in the project is worth 8.1 billion euros ($8.69 billion) and includes the initial contract of 2.7 billion euros for the first line signed in September.