Head of the Greater Cairo Reconstruction Authority Hisham Abo-Sena announced the signing of an agreement for establishing Rod El-Farag Highway. The agreement was signed between the ministries of Defence, Housing and Transportation; the defence ministry will fund, build, operate and maintain the highway. The first stage of the project involves extending the Cairo-Alexandria highway by 40 kilometres, linking it to the Orbital Road at Bashtil Station, with investments of EGP 5bn. This announcement was made Saturday, during a visit to the 30 June garden in Imbaba Airport. "The highway has two five-lane roads, two of which are lanes for buses, in addition to a railway for the tram," Abo-Sena said. Minister of Defence Abdel Al-Fattah Al-Sisi approved on Saturday the extension of Rod El-Farag Highway to the Regional Orbital Road at an additional cost of EGP 1bn. This would link El-Khalafawy Square, Giza, 6th of October and the Regional Orbital Road to other state governorates. "The Ministry of Housing will undertake the research and studies as well as the architectural designs [for the highway]. In addition, the ministry will reroute public utilities which will possibly cross paths with the highway, and will engage in expropriation and compensation activities. This will present an additional cost of EGP 2bn, raising the project's total cost to EGP 8bn. This project will improve the traffic density on the 26 July highway and will solve several other traffic problems," Abo Sena said. He pointed out that a new agreement is in progress between the ministries of Defence and Housing. The new agreement involves executing the third stage of the Regional Orbital Road project, which entails linking the Cairo-Fayoum highway to the Cairo-Alexandria highway. The first phase of this stage involves the extension of road to 66 kilometres at a cost of EGP 1.4bn. The Ministry of Housing will incur all costs, including industrial work on the Cairo-Fayoum and Oasis highways, in addition to tunnels that are needed to improve congestion. Al-Sisi approved on Saturday the funding by the defence ministry of the second phase of the project. The second phase involves extending the highway to 72 kilometres at a cost of EGP 2bn. The military engineers in the Armed Forces Architectural Designs Department will fully execute both phases in order to complete the project within 18 months at a total cost of EGP 3.4bn. Translated from AlBorsa Newspaper
