Egypt said it is restoring a partial ban on heavy trucks using Greater Cairo’s Ring Road starting Saturday, a statement by the interior ministry read on Wednesday.

The ban will be in effect between 6am and 12am, and applies to trucks carrying more than four tonnes of cargo.

The decision to restore the ban, which was first implemented in 2018, comes one day after Egypt said that starting Saturday it will shorten the nighttime curfew that has been in place since March to reduce the coronavirus infection rate.

Heavy trucks can use the country's massive regional road as an alternative to the ring road. The regional road connects several major districts of Greater Cairo, and is a key route for commuter traffic.

The ring road is notorious for traffic accidents, and heavy trucks are often blamed for deadly crashes on the country's highways.

Deadly road accidents take place on a near daily basis in Egypt, which suffers from poorly maintained road infrastructure and loosely applied traffic regulations.

Road accidents in Egypt dropped 41.1 percent to record 8,480 accidents in 2018, down from 14,403 accidents in 2014, an infograph by the Egyptian cabinet showed last year.

Deaths due to accidents declined 50.5 percent from 2014 to 2018, with 3,087 deaths in 2018, down from 6,236 in 2014.

Egypt has allocated millions of pounds to developing and expanding road networks in recent years.

It is currently implementing a comprehensive traffic law to crack down on violators and enhance safety and security.