The 9.7km 16-station line links El Ksar with Hai Nasr via the city’s main line station and the university.

Construction began in July 2013 and civil works were carried out by a Spanish consortium of Rover Alcisa, Assignia Infraestructuras and Elecnor. Project management services were provided by Systra.

The Cital joint venture of Alstom, Algiers Metro Company (EMA), Ferrovial, and Algerian National Railways (SNTF) has supplied 23 bidirectional Citadis LRVs for the project under a contract awarded in September 2013. Each 44m-long vehicle accommodates more than 400 passengers.

The LRVs were assembled at Cital’s plant in Annaba.

Alstom also supplied signalling, traction substations, telecommunications, operational support, maintenance equipment, and ticketing systems.