Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir said on Monday that buildings and workshops that hamper the Tebbin-Abbasia railway line will be demolished, and their owners will be compensated, urging them to search for a safer residence. His remarks came in the wake of a cargo train crash with two minibuses carrying workers on Monday in Cairo's Helwan district, leaving two people dead and five others injured, according to El-Wazir. The families residing along the Tebbin-Abbasia railway line will be counted starting Tuesday morning, El-Wazir said in a telephone interview with MBC Masr satellite channel. El-Wazir noted that those houses near the railway were illegally constructed, as the minimum distance between the rail line and houses should be 15 metres. The minister expressed his sincerest condolences to families of the victims, wishing the injured a speedy recovery. Following the accident, the Egyptian National Railways said the minibuses stopped at a residential area through which the railroad passes, and the locomotive driver was not able to stop the train. El-Wazir, during the telephone interview, said the train driver turned himself in after the accident at the Tebbin police station and tested negative for drugs. Egypt's prosecutor-general has opened an urgent investigation into the accident.
