Egypt's transport minister Hisham Arafat witnessed on Friday night a successful trial run of the new extension of the Third Line of Cairo's underground system in the eastern part of the capital in Heliopolis between the Haroun Rashid station and Heliopolis square.

Arafat said that the tests on the extension covered the functionings of the operation systems, tracks, electric power supply, signals, and pathways in these stations.

Meanwhile, the experimental operation on the Heliopolis Square- El-Shams Club extension will start on 27 October, while the test run on the Alf Maskan  -El-Shams Club route is set to begin on 7 November.

The new extended route is scheduled to receive strap-hangers in December of this year.

The starting speed of trains at the beginning of the trial runs will be 15 km/hr an it will be gradually increased to the expected maximum speed of 80 km/hr, Arafat elaborated.

The full Haroun El-Rashid - El-Shams Club extension covers a distance of 5.15 km and stops in four tunnel stations and one elevated station at El-Nozha stop.

Three of the underground stations (Haroun, Alf Maskan and El-Shams Club) have already been completed, he said.

Work on this phase of the project began in July 2015 and the final cost of its construction was 257 million euros plus EGP 1.5 billion, the minister said.

He added that the ministry is currently constructing the second part of the fourth phase of the third line to take commuters all the way to Cairo Airport.

The completed Third Line is scheduled to launch in 2022 and will serve three million commuters daily.

The Cairo underground metro system, which currently carries more than four million passengers daily throughout the capital city and surrounding areas, is one of the city’s fastest means of transportation.