The Ministry of Transport authorized construction of 4 new river ports along the Nile, after modifying "specifications" for such ports. The new ports will be tendered to investors later this year. The Nile River system is around 1600 km long and is an important transportation system in Egypt. Three decades ago, nearly 10 percent of Egypt's commodities were transported by Nile barges. Due to neglect and development in land transport, however, river transport became largely economically infeasible. Other newly constructed ports, recipients of hundreds of millions of pounds in investment, are expected to revive shipping along the Nile. "We've responded to demands made by the investors which mainly dictate that the Ministry of Transport will be in charge of all routine work involved in the operation of the services as well as the paperwork between all of the ministries involved in this project," said an official source at the ministry. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ministry did not alter the length of the 25-year-concession. No more additions will be incorporated into the contract, the source said. In a related development, the Ministry of Transport issued a report that said Nile barges transported 120 thousand tons of wheat, the equivalent of 2400 heavy truck loads, in the past 4 months. The new target amount of transported wheat along the Nile, according to the report, is 360,000 tons annually. Should that figure be achieved, Egyptian roads will see a reduction of 7200 trucks per year. Road transport claims 98 percent of total Egyptian transport. The expected truck reduction, the report said, would have a significant impact. Partial motivation of the initiative rests in reducing traffic accidents. Currently Egypt has one of the highest accident rates in the world. Translated from the Arabic edition.
