Egypt will receive a $392 million loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to fund the construction of Cairo's fourth metro line, Egypt's planning minister said on Monday after signing the agreement.

The amount is the first tranche of a $1.28 billion loan that carries an interest rate of 0.2 per cent, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Faiza Abu El-Naga said.

The new line, costing an estimated 15 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.49 billion), is to run from the northwestern suburb of Sixth of October City via the site of a new Egyptian museum near the Pyramids of Giza to a district south of downtown.

Construction is set to begin in September and expected to take seven years to finish. Egypt last month inaugurated the first phase of the third line, running from the city centre to the airport in the northeast. – Reuters