(AFP Photo)
State-owned Misr Tourism Company, in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, will dispatch buses to offer public transportation services in Greater Cairo, the cabinet announced Tuesday.
The government has set the proposed routes for the buses, which would provide high quality transportation services at high speed and reasonable prices, a cabinet statement said.
Rasha El-Azazzi, media adviser to the minister of tourism, said that the ministry is still preparing for the project, noting that the service will be offered to the public within the next few weeks.
The government’s announcement was made during a Tuesday meeting between Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, attended by the ministers of transportation, tourism, planning, local development, housing, finance and investment, and governors of Cairo, Giza and Qaliubiya to discuss traffic and transport issues.
Mehleb said that after three years of implementing the project, public transportation buses can be substituted by tourism buses until developing the public ones.
When asked about the cost of the project, the transportation ministry’s press office said they had no information, adding that Cairo governorate is responsible for managing the buses, rather than the ministry.
The transportation sector needs around EGP 65bn each year to meet its needs, former minister of transportation Ibrahim El-Demeiry said in May. The demand for transportation projects in Egypt is on the rise as the country’s population is expected to hit 140 million by 2050, El-Demeiry noted at that time.
