(DNE photo)
By Mohamed Alaa
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is preparing to present a project turning Cairo’s main Ring Road into a ‘smart road’, including camera systems and electronic road signs to regulate traffic, in April.
According to an official ministry source, officials at the Technical Committee of projects are currently putting the final touches to present the project to technology companies to compete over its execution.
The source added that he expects the investments in the project to reach EGP 200m, pointing out that a public tender is expected to be offered during April.
The Ring Road, which extends around the Greater Cairo area, was created to link the governorates around Greater Cairo together, whilst also easing traffic jams in Cairo and its surrounding areas.
The road, which is approximately 100km in length, was designed to pass through as many main areas of Cairo as possible. More than 150,000 cars pass on it every day; work in the road began in June 1985, at a cost of EGP 6.2bn.
Hamdy El-Laithy, Linatel Telecommunications CEO and Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunication (CIT) Board Member, said that road mechanisation will help Egypt settle plans and views for traffic movements. It will also facilitate and ease traffic flow, which contributes to solving problems of traffic jams.
El-Laithy expressed his intentions for competing on the implementation of the project once it is proposed, by activating partnership agreements with a South Korean company. As for funding the project, Linatel will turn to banks to provide the funds needed for executing the project in case they acquire it.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s electoral programme adopted building approximately 22 new roads within the highways network project, through joint investments between the private sector, government and the army. The Ministry of Transportation is currently implementing development projects of the present roads network, including building new roads with 365km length in total. This is in addition to doubling the already existent roads of 450km, to be adequate for the increase of traffic volume, as well as reducing accidents. Moreover, it is executing maintenance works in a number of roads across Egypt with a length of 1,900km in total, as well as raising their efficiency, at a total cost of EGP 8bn.
