EGYPT’S metro line is getting longer by the day. This week Adli Mansour Station, a major stop that is part of the fourth phase of Line 3 of the metro system, was inaugurated by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Named after the interim president whose term in office ran from 2013 to 2014, the new elevated station is a landmark on the Cairo-Ismailia Desert Road.

The station is also set to become a central point connecting various parts of the country with the New Administrative Capital. Besides the third metro line, the central station will house a full-service transport complex, including an electric train route, a railway station, a bus network extending to the various governorates as well as regionally, and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Moreover, it will house a commercial zone on a total area of 15 feddans.

The project is a joint venture between the Arab Contractors Company and Orascom for Construction.

Work on the fourth phase of the third line began in July 2015 and is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

According to the Arab Contractors’ website, the approximately seven-kilometre track of phase four consists of six over-ground stations and seven bridges connecting them. The stations are Al-Nozha, Hisham Barakat, Qobba, Omar ibn Al-Khattab, Haykestep, and Adli Mansour. The latter station is the biggest of the group because it is an interchange station.

The overall cost of the fourth phase is estimated at LE16 billion, bringing the cost of the entire line to LE97 billion, Transportation Minister Kamel Al-Wazir said in October 2019 while inaugurating the Heliopolis metro station.

The operational costs of the metro are LE8 billion annually while revenues are LE4 billion, Al-Wazir said on TV this week. To recover some of those costs and to maintain the efficiency of the facility which serves more than four million citizens daily, fares were increased on Monday for all metro lines.

A ticket for a journey of between one and nine stops is now LE5 instead of LE3, a ticket for nine to 16 stops costs LE7 instead of LE5, and a ticket for 16 to 40 stops costs LE10 instead of LE7. Before the fare hike on Monday, these prices were only for commuters of the third line.

“The projects implemented in the railway and the metro are all funded by loans. We are not asking you to repay the loans or their interests. We just need to maintain the efficiency of the facilities… We want to charge the citizens what ensures the [continued] efficiency of the facilities,” the president said at the inauguration ceremony.

Work on the metro line is part of major infrastructure projects being implemented across the country.

According to Al-Wazir, 7,000km of new roads at a cost of LE175 billion have been completed. He added that projects in the transport section at a cost of LE6.6 trillion are in progress.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 20 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly