The new Heliopolis station on Line 3 of the Cairo metro was opened on 20 October by the National Authority for‎Tunnels (NAT) in a ceremony attended by Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir.

The new station, located in Heliopolis Square, a major ‎square in Heliopolis district, is equipped with ‎ticket-dispensing machines, which should reduce lines at ticket windows.‎

The station has eight entrances and exits, 18 staircases (10 inner staircases‎and eight outer staircases), 17 escalators (11 inner escalators and six from the‎street level to the ticket window level), four lifts (two lifts from the street level to the ticket‎window level and two from the ticket window level to metro platform). The station is air-‎conditioned as with other Line 3 metro stations.‎

Minister El-Wazir said that Heliopolis is the largest metro station in Egypt, the Middle‎East, and Africa, with an area of approximately 10,000 square metres, a length of 225‎metres, a width of 22 metres, and a depth of 28 metres from the street level.‎

El-Wazir also said that 5,000 square metres of the station will be utilised commercially in order to increase the Cairo metro’s financial returns.

Construction of the station, which cost approximately EGP 1.9 billion, was fully funded by thecountry’s ‎general treasury, and 100,000 square metres of concrete and 18,000 tonnes of steel were used to build it.

Sources at the Ministry of Transportation say that the station was‎finished two months ahead of schedule, and that El-Wazir insisted on the early opening to coincide with the celebrations for the anniversary of the 6 October war of 1973.‎

According to El-Wazir, the under-construction El-Nuzha and Hisham Barakat stations will be operational in December‎‎2019, and the Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, Qabba',‎Hikestep, and Adly Mansur stations will be opened in April 2020.‎

‎"After the completion of Line 3, the capacity of the three [Cairo] metro‎lines will reach over 3.5 million passengers daily," the minister said.‎

When completed, Line 3 will connect East Cairo from Adly Mansour metro‎station (10 Ramadan City) to West Cairo (Bulaq Al-Dakrur), extending 45 kilometres.

The station will also be connected to Line 1 at Gamal Abdel-Nasser Station, which is already a transit station with the second metro line to Giza.

The third line’s Adly Mansour Station will serve as a transit point for the electric train to the country’s New Administrative Capital, which is being constructed east of Cairo.

"Currently, a 3.5-kilometre-extension of Line 3 from Adly‎Mansour station to Cairo International Airport is being studied. The total cost of phase 4 [of the Line 3 extension project] is EGP 16.202‎billion, in addition to EGP 1.5 billion to build three stations to connect Adly Mansur station to Cairo airport,” Minister El-Wazir said, adding that the total‎cost of the Line 3 extension project is EGP 97 billion.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/353332.aspx