1,200 km highway has potential to boost economy but cost worrisome
CAIRO: A five-member ministerial committee began work this month to study the feasibility of constructing a 1,200 km North-South highway proposed by Egyptian academic Farouq El Baz, of Boston University.
The nine-month study of what the committee is referring to as the Development Corridor, will look into establishing the country s first-ever highway linking the North Coast to the Southern tip of Nasser Lake. El Baz s proposal calls for building the highway west of the Nile and linking it to cities along the river with 12 smaller highways totalling 800 km.
Currently, a poorly-maintained, unlit network of two-lane roads stretches along the Nile to connect its villages. The government estimates 6,000 people are killed annually in traffic accidents.
On Monday, the committee appointed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif met to discuss feasibility of the project but faced serious opposition from some of its own members, including Alexandria Bibliotheca Chief Ismail Serag El Din.
The committee, which brought together the Ministries of Economic Development, Transportation, Housing, International Cooperation and Local Development, concluded the project will constitute a major investment the size of Toshka and Sinai Development Project and, therefore, requires more studies.
Minister of Economic Development Othman Mohamed Othman says the project would help spur development outside the constraints of the Nile Valley. Still, he says it is too early to determine its economic feasibility and whether it would lead to the desired results such as the reclamation of desert land between the highway and the river for agriculture, and the attraction of local and foreign investment to establish housing and industrial zones along the highway.
While no cost estimate has been made yet, Othman says the current proposal does not call for government funding, but relies on preparing project plans to be marketed to the private sector for a possible public-private-partnership.
Despite its potential for economic benefit, Serag El Din says few similar projects have proved successful in other countries.
A lot of these projects end in a way much different than what was planned for in the beginning, Serag El Din says. He cited a similar World Bank-funded project in Brazil abandoned after 20 years of on-and-off work, and Eurotunnel, a 50 km tunnel running from England to France across the English Channel. Although the tunnel opened in 1994 after eight years of construction, it remains heavily in debt as train-passenger revenues have not proven enough to finance the project s 10 billion sterling pounds (LE 109 billion) in loans. Project planners had originally estimated a total cost of 2 billion sterling pounds, but the final cost reached 11 billion sterling pounds (LE 120 billion).
But while committee members are aligning themselves in the for and against groups, Minister of Housing Ahmed El Maghrabi questioned the need for the project.
We need to ask ourselves why are we in need of such a huge project, says El Maghrabi. Would it not be more efficient to direct our money and efforts to smaller projects we are in immediate need of?
El Baz says his proposal is vital to absorb the saturation of people, housing and industry along the Nile Valley and boost the growth of already established projects such as the LE 6 billion Toshka project. The road, he says is to feature exits to all major cities along the Nile. Each connecting road can be geared toward the development of certain projects such as tourism along the road to Alexandria, and cement and petrochemicals along the road to Fayoum.
Earlier this month, Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour said construction on the 220 km Sohag-Red Sea road will begin in October. The ministry s studies show the road will cost LE 650 million, all of which will be financed by the government using a portion of the Sidi Abdel Rahman land-sale to Emaar Misr for LE 1 billion.
