The General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport (GARBLT) refused to bear the cost of adjusting the main road in Benban, Aswan, after a number of investors in the area’s solar power plants requested adding another lane to the main road to ensure the safety of workers and vehicles.
Head of the Executive Sector at GARBLT, Sami Farag, told Daily News Egypt that the authority has officially informed the Ministry of Electricity that GARBLT will not bear the cost of adjusting the main road in Benban, stressing that it was not included in the nation-wide infrastructure scheme, dubbed the National Roads Project.
Farag noted that GARBLT approved the study submitted by the University of Aswan to adjust the main road leading to the power plants in Benban, adding that the authority is willing to grant power plants investors all required licenses to adjust the main road on their own, without any cost or obligation on the authority’s part.
The estimated cost of the requested road-adjustment ranges between EGP 83m and 95m. The Benban investors also refused to bear the cost of the project, especially as the main roads are the responsibility of GARBLT, and the required adjustment aims to avoid accidents.
The Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mohamed Shaker, contacted the Minister of Transport, some of the solar power plants investors, and the Governor of Aswan, to settle the problem as soon as possible, an official at the Ministry of Electricity said.
The Benban investors called for completing the two-lane highway in Aswan this month, especially as the implementation peak period will be in the next three months.
The security and safety standards of workers and projects are one of the most important requirements by international financial institutions, which conduct regular meetings and inspection visits to ensure the projects’ abidance to security and safety standards.
A total of 32 companies are implementing different solar power projects nationwide, with a total capacity of 1,500 MW, within the 2014 feed-in tariff programme. The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company shall purchase the energy produced from these projects at 8.4 cents per kWh.
