ADDRESSING members of parliament, Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir, who has come under fire amid a spate of deadly train cashes, on Monday presented his plan to deal with the country’s chronic railway problems. The minister noted that railways, like other facilities affiliated to the ministry, have suffered from negligence and abandonment, affecting their safety, security and quality.
On 18 April a passenger train derailed north of Cairo, killing at least 11 people. Three weeks earlier two trains collided in Middle Egypt, killing 19 people and injuring 185.
Al-Wazir said half of the 3,000 passenger railcars have been in service for the last 40 years and that the ministry could not purchase spare parts. In addition, the Railway Authority is LE88 billion in debt to the Central Bank of Egypt, the National Investment Bank and the General Authority for Petroleum. According to the minister, a number of workers and technicians also adopt extremist and anarchist ideologies. “They do not wish any good for the railways or safety, security, and development for Egypt,” he said.
Introducing the projects implemented by the ministry between 2014 and 2024, concerning the railway sector, the minister stated that 257 projects worth LE225 billion had been laid out. Of those, 177 have been realised at LE45 billion, while 53 projects worth LE48 billion are still underway. The implementation of 27 projects worth LE132 billion will begin on 1 July. Al-Wazir said that LE53 billion were allocated to the purchase of new train engines and the repair of 400 out of the 800 engines. Contracts were signed with General Electric and ProgressRail to carry out maintenance work for 15 years. With regard to passenger railcars, a contract was signed with Transmashholding to supply 1,300 railcars. The minister stated that he had submitted a request to the president to hire 750 engineers to work in maintenance, control systems and signalling.
Al-Wazir urged concerned authorities to fire or transfer 162 employees who work in the railway sector, and whose allegiance to extremist movements has been proved, to non-sensitive governmental bodies.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 28 April, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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