CAIRO: The second phase of the Upper Egypt-Red Sea road will cost LE 1.6 billion, reported local newspapers citing Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin. "The phase of upgrading the road to be a two-lane road will start after the holy fasting month of Ramadan,” Mohieldin said in a statement on the ministry's website. Mohsen El-Nomani, governor of Sohag, told Daily news Egypt the new road is expected to spur investment and tourism, linking roads to previously inaccessible areas. The 414-km-long road from Sohag to Safaga Port is meant to help revive industrial zones in Upper Egypt and link them to Red Sea harbors which are being developed, particularly Safaga, reviving trade and investment in Upper Egyptian governorates. At an event to celebrate the completion of the first phase, Mohieldin said more than 20,000 workers and technicians worked on constructing the road over a period of 30 months. The second phase will be funded from the yield of the State-owned Asset Management Program and carried out by Hassan Allam Company over the course of another 30 months, the minister said. “This road starts from eastern Sohag, in a place called Al-Kawthar, and goes on for around 270 km to Safaga. It also has extensions from Qena and Assuit,” said El-Nomani. “The most important thing is that the road goes through hills and mountains of the Eastern Plateau which have historically been a major obstacle cutting off Sohag and the other governorates from the Red Sea ports,” he added. The governor said that there are plans to link the road to Al-Wadi El-Gedid, completing the network of roads in the south and linking it to the ports. According to El-Nomani, before the road's completion, most of Sohag's land was inaccessible and therefore less suitable for investment. The governor added that the road has provided access to many areas, in Sohag and along the road, including areas favorable for agriculture development, mining activities, industrial zones and residential developments. Even though Sohag is in the center of Upper Egypt and has a strategic geographic position in the south for trade and investment, the road, for the first time, has linked Sohag to a port in the Red Sea. This road also links the touristic Red Sea route to Sohag, giving access to Sohag's touristic sites at Akhmim, Abydos and the recently excavated temple of Ramses II. El-Nomani said that the road is good news for locally driven handicraft industries like Akhmim's handmade silk industry which started from the time of the Pharaohs and is being supported by the governorate. “The road which was opened only recently has a traffic density of 2,000 cars per week and we expect this to increase with the second phase. When industry starts to pick up on the decrease in transportation prices to the now more accessible port,” he said. “Exports from and imports to the area will also be more feasible and never before seen investments are now flowing in,” he added. Investments which used to be in the range of tens of millions have recently been reaching hundreds of millions and even billions of Egyptian pounds, with the news of government infrastructure spending attracting larger investors, El-Nomani said. Earlier in March, Mohieldin stressed the importance of the Upper Egypt-Red Sea road in terms of allowing for many investment projects that would provide thousands of jobs for local residents. “This project comes as part of the government's ongoing process of upgrading and improving its infrastructure, which reflects positively on Egypt's short-to-medium term growth outlook as higher domestic investment activities and government expenditure fuel real GDP growth at a time when external drivers (trade, tourism, etc) continue to gradually recover,” said Beltone Financial in an emailed statement. “On the other hand, in the longer run such inter-governorate road networks will boost and facilitate domestic transportation,” the statement concluded.
