Chinese carmaker to build monorail in Egypt

China's leading new-energy carmaker BYD announced Tuesday that it would build a monorail transit system in Egypt, the company's second overseas monorail order.

The Shenzhen-based company has recently signed an agreement with the government of Alexandria, a coastal city in Egypt, to build a 128-kilometer monorail, the company said.

The cost and other details of the project were not revealed.

The carmaker has spent around 5 years and 5 billion yuan ($750 million) to develop the system named Yungui (Skyrail). Monorail trains can run at a maximum speed of 80 km per hour.

Compared with a subway system, a monorail requires only one-fifth of the building cost and one-third of the construction time, according to BYD.

"BYD began to produce and sell passenger vehicles in Egypt many years ago. Nearly one-third of taxis in Cairo are made by BYD. Our brand popularity, product reliability and local manufacturing experience have made this new order possible," said Huang Zhixue, general manager with BYD's Middle East and Africa Auto Sales Division.