Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi followed up on progress on a number of transport projects yesterday, during a meeting with a host of government officials on Sunday.
The officials included Prime Minister, Moustafa Madbouli, Transport Minister, Kamel el-Wazir, and Head of the Armed Forces Financial Authority, Major-General Ahmed el-Shazli.
The meeting especially focused on transport projects that would depend on green and clean energy, Presidency Spokesman, Ambassador Bassam Radi, said
These projects aim to be sustainable and protect the environment, rationalize energy consumption, prevent accidents and protect public health.
Some of the projects reviewed by the president during the meeting will connect urban communities in the Greater Cairo with each other and with communities in other governorates, Spokesman Radi said.
“The projects include the rapid electric train, the monorail, the light electric train and the bus rapid transit network,” Ambassador Radi said.
He added that the president also reviewed the progress of ongoing expansions to the underground.
In directives to the officials during the meeting, President Sisi called for speeding up the completion of the different components of the new mass transport system around the country, Spokesman Radi said.
This system, the President noted, would represent a qualitative leap and a civilized addition given that it would facilitate the rapid and safe movement of citizens, contribute to improving living, economic and environmental conditions, and cope up with the huge development process that Egypt is currently witnessing.
The president also directed the officials attending the meeting to pay due attention to the operation system as well as to the technical cadres who would manage the new transport system.
President Sisi also called for qualifying these cadres so that they can keep pace with the modernity and advancing character of the technology utilized in the system.
For his part, Minister el-Wazir briefed the president on the status of the fast electric train which will include three main lines, Ambassador Radi said.
He especially focused on the ongoing development of the new system’s civil and industrial works, the stations being built along all these lines, the surface and overhead tracks and the intersecting bridges, the presidency spokesman said.
Minister el-Wazir also briefed the president on the progress of works to construct the bus rapid transit system on the Ring Road.
The project, he noted, would integrate with the Transport Ministry’s plan to upgrade the Ring Road.
With a length of 106 kilomteres, the bus rapid transit network (BRT) will be considered the world’s longest, Minister el-Wazir noted in his presentation.
“The system will offer an alternative to random transport on the road and help people reduce dependence on their private vehicles,” Spokesman Radi quoted Minister el-Wazir as saying during the meeting.
