The Transport Ministry signed a EUR243mn loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea to finance the purchase of 32 metro cars from Hyundai Rotem, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat said, according to Al Shorouk. The loan carries a 1% interest rate and is payable over 33 years after a 20-year grace period. Egypt had signed last month an agreement with South Korea to manufacture and supply the metro cars, which will be used in the Cairo Metro Lines 3 and 4. The order makes up the second half of the 64 cars the government had planned to lock down for the new line. The Ministry is expected to sign a EUR50mn loan agreement with the French Development Agency (AFD) to upgrade the aging electric transmission lines and generators of the Cairo Metro Line 1.