President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi launched, on 22 July, the national project for roads, which includes 39 roads with a total length of 4,400 km for an investment value of LE36 billion. In a national address in Ismailia on the occasion of launching the new Suez Canal project on 5 August, Al-Sisi stressed the importance of road development as a form of economic empowerment. He said that such projects will not be financed from the state budget but by money donated to the Long Live Egypt Fund. The fund was launched on 1 June and is supervised by Al-Sisi, along with Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyib, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and CBE Governor Hisham Ramez. Earlier, Al-Sisi said the project will link governorates through a network of internal roads, as well as a new international road network. The 39 road projects vary from upgrading to construction, and the work will be shared by the ministries of transportation, housing and defence. The first phase of the project, allotted to the Transportation Ministry, is for 13 roads to be finished in one year. Transport Minister Hani Dahi said in a press statement that the first phase of the national project for roads will begin in the 2014-15 fiscal year, with 13 roads of 1,200 km. “The president requested that all 13 roads should be completed in one year,” Dahi said. “We are assigning major public and private sector companies for this purpose.” The 13 roads in the first phase are: Ismailia-Banha (Regional Ring) Road, 33 km; Shubra-Banha Road, 40 km; Al-Farafrah-Ein Dallah, 90 km; Khashm Al-Rakabah, 110 km; Al-Minya-Ras Gharib, 80 km; Qena-Safaga, 160 km; Al-Fayoum-Al-Wahat, 80 km; Assuit-Suhag-Red Sea, 180 km; Sheikh Fadl link on the Ras-Gharib Road, 90 km; Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel-Ras Sidr link, 35 km; Wadi Al-Natrun-Al-Alamain, 100 km; Central Ring Road linking Ain-Sokhna and Ismailia roads, 35 km; and Suez Road-Regional Ring Road link, 70 km. Dahi said that more than ten public and private companies are involved in the construction of the first phase of the national roads project. “Due to the enormity of the project and its high cost, 17 committees were formed to oversee all phases of implementation in addition to the formation of an operations room to follow up the schedule of the construction process,” he said. Saad Goyoushi, head of the Roads and Bridges Authority, said, “The authority established the Egyptian Company for Quality as an advisory body for all projects. It will coordinate and cooperate with consultants from each contracting company working on the project.” Goyoushi said that a total of 10 km will be constructed per day, costing LE100 million, with each km costing approximately LE10 million. “There is no development without roads,” Ali Al-Biali, professor of urban planning at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Ahram Weekly. “The national project of roads will not only improve internal trade but it will also increase foreign trade and its movement since it will link the domestic roads' network with the international one. Economic growth will be positively affected,” Al-Biali said. “Moreover, one of the major aims behind the project is to relieve the pressure on the Delta by constructing the project's new desert roads which allow trade transportation from the north to the south, to avoid going through the Delta and Cairo regions. It links the eastern and western regions of Egypt through crosswise axes, which will allow desert development to be achieved,” he added. Dahi said earlier that all the new roads will have the necessary services, including petrol and rest stations for the convenience of drivers. “The Strategic Plan for Egypt 2052 includes the building of 44 new cities. However, we have only finished four or five new cities because of the lack of sufficient roads,” Al-Biali said. “The total size of the national project is quite an achievement, considering that the Strategic Plan for Egypt 2017 doesn't even provide for such a distance.”
