The Egyptian National Railways body (ERN) will add high-speed rails to its services at an EGP 70 billion ($10.16 billion) cost, said Minister of Transportation Ibrahim El-Demeiry in a press conference on Wednesday. The project is intended to be funded through contributions from military and government banks as well as Initial Public Offering, the minister added. The planned tracks are to connect Alexandria to Aswan and Hurghada to Luxor, with the former stopping at Giza, Beni Sueif and Assiut. The ousted Mohamed Morsi government had last year announced plans to initiate a high-speed train project. Egypt's government had received a $106 million loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) to finance a development project for the railways of Al-Qaliubiya, Al-Sharqiya, Ismailia and Port Said, Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported three weeks ago. By and large, 500 million passengers utilise Egyptian railway services each year (1.4 million per day), according to the ERN website. However, railway services were suspended as a result of the violence that erupted following the 14 August police dispersal of two large Islamist protest camps, costing ERN EGP 4 million per day, an Egyptian Railway Authority official told Ahram Online two weeks ago. Passenger train services of the line joining Mediterranean cities with the capital Cairo resumed operations on Tuesday while lines heading to Upper Egypt remain suspended. Source: Ahram Online
