Work on the underground garage beneath Tahrir Square started well over a decade ago. This week, Minister of Housing Mustafa Madbouli announced that the garage is finally finished and will open at the end of the month. The much-delayed opening is central to plans to reduce traffic congestion in Cairo. The garage, built at a cost of LE700 million, will hold up to 1,700 cars and 24 buses on four levels, each covering 20,000 square meters. Garage-based air-conditioned buses with WiFi connections will serve three bus routes in downtown Cairo. “The garage will improve traffic flow and safety around Tahrir Square,” Madbouli said at a press conference. Mostafa Sabri, a professor of town planning and transport at Ain Shams University, says the garage is key to eliminating traffic congestion in downtown Cairo since it will allow authorities to put an end to illegal parking along busy streets. If the flow of traffic downtown is to improve, however, Sabri said that authorities must strictly enforce parking regulations. The decision to relocate street vendors, whose numbers had increased dramatically after the January 2011 revolution, from main streets to the parking lot of Al-Torgoman bus station has already eased congestion and improved traffic flow. “The relocation of street vendors and the opening of the Tahrir car park together are important steps towards ending traffic congestion in downtown Cairo,” says Sabri. The garage project was first announced in 2003. Its opening date has been rescheduled several times. Construction work didn't begin until 2009, only to stop in 2011 as political instability engulfed Egypt. In June 2012 government officials announced that the garage would open by the end of the same year, a schedule that proved optimistic. Similar promises were made last year. Early in 2014, officials announced 30 June as the inauguration date, only to reschedule it for September. Last month Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb unveiled a comprehensive study addressing the traffic problems of greater Cairo. The study recommended steps to reduce the use of private cars by making public transit more attractive. This includes building more bus stations, creating new bus routes and upgrading public buses. Sabri says that to really improve Cairo's transport the Metro system should be expanded so that lines service all of the capital's most densely populated areas. He also said random parking by microbuses contributes to Cairo's chronic traffic problems. Tackling such illegal parking and installing traffic lights on main streets must be priorities, he says. “The Tahrir garage project should be replicated in areas across Greater Cairo. Such parking facilities will help alleviate the traffic nightmare many Egyptians live every day.”
