Egypt, in a bid to boost its creaking transport system, plans to offer road, rail and other projects worth 10 billion Egyptian pounds for public-private partnerships, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Officials have previously said they would turn to private companies to provide more social services and infrastructure through public-private partnerships (PPP). So far, work has been mostly in wastewater plants and hospitals. "The public budget does not have enough allocated to roads and highways, which stands at 35 to 45 billion pounds, meaning the private sector needs to join in completing such projects," Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said. The daily independent Al-Masry Al-Youm, which carried the minister's comments, also said the total value of the projects to be offered was 10 billion pounds. It did not give a timescale. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment. A series of road, rail and sea accidents in Egypt in recent years have triggered an outcry over the government's handling of transport safety and prompted calls for increased spending on improving road infrastructure. Traffic is often gridlocked in the capital of the Arab world's most populous nation. Economists say a better network of roads and public transport is essential to encouraging growth and productivity. The Investment Ministry lists individual projects on its website (www.investment.gov.eg) that include roads and river transport. One highway project on the website would link the Shubra area of Cairo with Benha to the north to ease congestion on an existing road used by about 45,000 vehicles a day. The new 38 km (24 mile) road would be built on a build-own-transfer basis. The website said the aim was to attract foreign and Egyptian investors by granting concessions to build, manage and maintain highways and other roads in return for collecting tolls. Many major roads connecting cities in Egypt already demand tolls. Separately, the newspaper said the Transport Ministry was considering offering a project to extend Cairo's underground metro to suburbs not now on the network. Cairo now has two metro lines across the capital. As part of its efforts to encourage private initiatives, Egypt's cabinet has already approved allocating government owned land next to highways to investors to develop.
