Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered on Sunday to finalize the development works of Greater Cairo's Ring Road by December 2021, a statement by the presidency said.

 

The president's directive came in a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir, in which El-Sisi was briefed on the ongoing efforts to develop the Ring Road through its expansion and upgrading its efficiency.

 

In September, El-Wazir announced an EGP 8 billion development plan for the 106-kilometre Ring Road, which is the most important road in terms of traffic volume and density in the governorates that make up Greater Cairo, to expand it from eight lanes to 14, or from 37.2 metres to 60 metres in width.

 

On Sunday, El-Sisi reviewed the implementation of new traffic corridors that include all services to link urban communities on both sides of the Ring Road, the statement said.

 

In this context, the president directed to exploit the development of those corridors to raise the efficiency of the surrounding areas and increase their services within an integrated development framework.

 

In the meeting, El-Sisi was also briefed on the latest developments of Wadi Al-Natroun-Al-Alamein highway and its expansion to become eight lanes in each direction by providing a service road on both sides, in addition to the construction of turnaround bridges to secure its intersections.

 

The transport minister also presented during the meeting the implementation phases of the Automated Transport System (ATS) on axes and highways, whose first phase includes a total of seven roads with a length of 1,187 km.

 

In this regard, El-Sisi instructed the speedy completion of ATS' first phase and to commence on the implementation of its second phase, which includes 14 roads with a length of about 5,000 km, in order to put into practice the highest standards of security and safety on roads and axes and to preserve the health and safety of citizens.

 

In 2014, El-Sisi launched Egypt's National Road Project with the goal of developing and extending Egypt’s 23,500km long road network.

 

Of the 7,000 km of new roads envisaged by the project, more than 4,500 km have been built, and a further 5,000 km of existing roads have been upgraded at a cost of LE15 billion.

 

The year the project was launched Egypt ranked 118 in terms of the quality of road infrastructure in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report. By 2019, it had climbed to 28th place on the list.

 

Better roads have led to improved safety as between 2014 and 2019 the number of road accidents in Egypt fell by 30 per cent, from 14,403 a year to 9,992, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

 

With regard to the development of Egypt's network of ports, El-Sisi gave instructions for the preparation of an integrated study for constructing El-Max port between Alexandria and Dekheila ports.

 

The newly-proposed port is planned to join a group of ports developed according to the highest standards on the Red and Mediterranean Seas, in line with Egypt's geographical position as a link between East and West, the statement said.