Consortium of three companies to build Egypt's first dry port - minister

A consortium of three companies has been awarded a contract for a $176 million project to build Egypt's first dry port, the first of eight ports the government plans to set up, the transportation minister said on Wednesday.

The companies are Egypt's El Sewedy Electric and 3a International and Germany's DB Schenker Egypt, Kamel al-Wazir told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Construction work for the 100 feddans (420,000 square meters) port west of Cairo will start on Saturday and last two years, he added.

The port will be able to handle 720,000 containers annually and support 3,500 direct and indirect jobs, the minister said.

Egypt said last year the project would be a public-private partnership between the General Authority For Ports and Dry Land and the winning consortium. [nL3N205043]

(Reporting by Moamen Said Atallah; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Mark Potter)