Transport Committee
Cairo Metro Line 3
AmCham's Transport Committee held a meeting on April 9 with General
Saad Shehata, chairman of the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT),
to address the topic of Cairo's third metro line.
Shehata explained to attendees that Cairo's population of 14 million
in 2004 is expected to reach 20 million by 2022, which will put
even greater pressure on the capital's various infrastructure systems,
particularly civic transport. As such, the government has formulated
a master plan for transportation projects in Greater Cairo until
2012. Cairo's third metro line, the 34-kilometer line that will
link Imbaba and Cairo International Airport, is one of NAT's most
ambitious projects. The proposed 29-station line is planned to accommodate
2 million passengers a day and will be built in four phases: Phase
1 links Attaba to Abbasiya (4.3km, five stations); Phase 2 links
Abbasiya to Haram (6.2km, four stations); Phase 3 links Attaba to
Imbaba (11.6km, 12 stations); and Phase 4 links Haram to Cairo Airport
(12.1km, eight stations).
Shehata said the estimated cost of Phase 1 is ŁE 3.6 billion, while
Phase 2 is ŁE 2.8 billion. No estimate has been given for the completion
of phases 3 and 4. International bids for the construction of Phase
1 are currently being evaluated and the contract will be announced
in July 2006. Future projects for NAT,
Shehata enumerated, include the Port Said Tunnel Project, which
crosses the Suez Canal and is expected to accommodate 10,000 passengers
a day by 2015. NAT is also planning to extend Cairo's metro line
2 to Sixth of October City, via the populous Haram district, and
has a proposal for a 21.5km high-speed tram to connect Nasr City
and New Cairo, carrying up to 20,000 passengers a day.
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Modernizing transportation in Alexandria
AmCham's Transport Committee held a lunch in Alexandria with the
city's governor, Abdel Salam Al Mahgoub, on February 9 to discuss
"Modernizing transportation in Alexandria." In this respect,
Sherine Maged, chairman of Alexandria Passenger Transportation Authority
(APTA), related APTA's primary project of converting 350 buses from
diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG), at a rate of 70 a year.
Accordingly, arrangements have been made with five major petroleum
companies to build five CNG refueling stations to cater to the converted
vehicles. The project will be funded by the ministries of petroleum
and finance and National Investment Bank.
Maged also spoke about another key APTA project, upgrading the Misr
Station-Abu Qir rail line, which serves around 258,000 passengers
daily. In addition, APTA has signed an MoU with the Ministry of
Transport to establish a rail link between Alexandria and Borg Al
Arab.
In the coming few days, however, a new "wireless taxi"
service will be launched in Alexandria whereby customers can call
a central dispatch to have a taxi sent to pick them up. The dial-up
number is 080 099 99999, he announced.
Apart from transport, Al Mahgoub spoke about recent developments
achieved in education in partnership with USAID and several NGOs,
as well as health development accomplished with the assistance of
the World Bank. USAID has also provided $75 million to Alexandria's
sewage network to install new pipelines, and another $75 million
to establish the largest drinking water station in Egypt. The governor
added that through USAID assistance, the Egyptian Businessmen's
Association has lent nearly £E1 billion to SMEs in Alexandria,
which are expected to create approximately 480,000 jobs.
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CNG vehicles: Current practice and future trends in Egypt
On December 19, 2005, AmCham's Environment, Petroleum and Transport
committees hosted a joint meeting with Emad Hassan, a principal
consultant with NEXANT, and Khaled Abu Bakr, vice chairman and managing
director of Gas & Energy Co., to discuss "Compressed natural gas
(CNG) vehicles: current practice and future trends in Egypt."
Today, Hassan said, 95 CNG fueling stations service 63,135 vehicles,
mostly taxis and microbuses, in 14 governorates. Forty conversion
centers turn cars built to run on gasoline into CNG vehicles. Surveys
indicate that most owners of converted vehicles are pleased with
the results. Those who did not convert their vehicles said they
feared poorer acceleration, reduced engine life, safety concerns,
the scarcity of CNG refueling stations and cylinder weight. When
asked where they had heard of these perceived problems, most said
their mechanics had warned them against CNG.
Based on these findings, Hassan identified the main barriers to
spreading the technology as: perceived technical and performance
problems; the perceived inconvenience of refueling; the cost of
conversion; and lack of awareness.
To further the spread of CNG-enabled vehicles, Hassan recommended
lowering the import duties on CNG vehicles and the components needed
to manufacture them, and a public-awareness campaign aimed at improving
CNG vehicles' image.
Abu Bakr said that 90 octane gasoline available for ŁE 1/liter locally
costs an average equivalent of ŁE 1.64/liter abroad, whereas 80
octane gasoline costs ŁE 0.90/liter locally and ŁE 1.57 abroad,
a situation maintained by government subsidies that have grown by
352 percent in the past decade as oil prices have increased. These
subsidies place a substantial burden on the government and the economy
- a burden that could be lightened by removing technical problems
as well as refueling and conversion cost barriers.
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