
German company Siemens Mobility has signed a $4.5 billion contract with Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels to deliver the country's first high-speed and electrified train line (pictured in a rendering). The first 660-kilometer line will connect Cairo to new cities. See more Egyptian mega projects being built for the country's growing population.

Pictured here in a rendering, Siemens says the new rail line will create a "Suez Canal type of link on the tracks," for both goods and people -- transporting more than 30 million people per year and increasing freight capacity by 15%.

This aerial view from March 2020 shows the ongoing development of Egypt's "New Administrative Capital" mega project, on a swath of desert roughly the size of Singapore.

These new towers are under construction at the capital city, which is being built from scratch some 45 kilometers east of Cairo.

Plans for the new capital were announced back in 2015 and construction has been underway since. Proposals for the city include housing for five million people, over 1,000 mosques, smart villages, the world's largest park and a financial district (shown in this image from 2019).

Egypt's Suez Canal underwent an $8 billion expansion in 2015, with another round starting earlier this year to further widen the canal -- which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and offers the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia.

This image shows the two channels of the Suez Canal during the opening ceremony of the expansion in 2015. The new 35-kilometer channel was designed to increase the capacity of ships. Further improvement will be vital for economic growth in the coming decade.