Since the ancient Egyptian civilization emerged on the Nile bank, the Egyptian citizen has paid due attention to the shipbuilding industry. Egypt has pioneered in paving roads and extending railways to transfer commodities to all governorates. Moreover, Egypt possesses one of the main international navigational passages, i.e. Suez Canal, which plays an effective role in the flourishment of the world trade, not to mention being one of the first countries that paid heed to air transportation where the first airline company was established in 1932.

 

 

The State exerts strenuous efforts to improve the evolution plans of the transportation sector, salient of which are as follows:

 

1- A programme on paving roads at a distance of 12,000 km (doubling and up-grading the high one-way roads between the Upper Egypt and the Delta gover-norates).

2- Operating the "Tok-Tok".

3- Establishing the third line of the underground metro. 

4- The Public Transportation Companies Programme (to bring about traffic flow between the various markaz (small towns) and the governorate central cities – 5000 busses).

 

Salient achievements are as follows:

 

-  Some 1,748 public transportation busses, out of 5000 busses specified in the presidential platform, with total investments of LE 870 million and workforce of 784 laborours, are working in all governorates.

-  Total distance of roads reached 960 km with investments of about LE 1 billion.

-  Execution of the third line of the underground metro project, which started on April 29, 2007.

The Egyptian Railways… A Continuous Contribution to the Passenger and Cargo

 

 

Nowadays, railways play a main role in the passenger and cargo transportation across Egypt. They also witness continuous development. Thus the state has been keen to link all main ports with the railway network.

 

Egypt has 28 lines which are, by 2007, running over a total distance of 9528 km and by 796 passenger stations, and operates 1800 trains on round trips at a length of 135,000 km. These have led to the railway's participating in transporting passengers to reach about 60,000 million passenger/km and transporting cargo to reach about 4,500 million ton/km during the same year. 

 

Due to the advanced transportation technology, Egypt's railway network witness noticeable updates where stations have been electronically equipped, passenger carriages upgraded and car bridges and tunnels were constructed along the railway network.

 

The underground metro is one of the major civilization projects on the map of Egypt's roads with investments amounting to LE 12 billion. Thus Egypt is the first African and Middle Eastern country to have an underground metro.

 

The metro links three governorates (Cairo – Giza - Qalyoubia) and transports around 3 million passengers/day, and its lines extend to a distance of 64.6 km through two main lines:

 

The first line: Helwan - Al-Marg with a length of 43 km.

 

The second line: Shubra Al-Khaima - Al-Munib with a length of 21.6 km.

 

Moreover, the first phase for establishing the third line started on April 29, 2007. It extends at a length of 34 km across 29 stations, 27 of which are underground stations.

 

This line is supposed to cross the two branches of the Nile below the 15th of May Bridge till Imbaba with a total cost of LE 22 billion.

 

A Huge Network of Bridges and Tunnels

 

Egypt's network of bridges and tunnels is enhanced by various mega projects that contributed to bringing about traffic flow and linking various roads and governorates. Number of bridges in Egypt reaches 181, where 26 were built over the Nile and 85 flyovers. The most significant newly inaugurated bridges are: 

 

 

It is the longest metal bridge across the Nile, linking the international coastal road from the east towards the Canal and Sinai governorates and from the west towards the Delta governorates. It was inaugurated in August 2007 for the public.

 

 

They lie on the population area border of Sohag, and bring about traffic flow between the two parts of the city. They also open new paths for the movement of vehicles.

 

Mubarak - As-Salam Bridge

 

It is the first car suspension bridge across the Suez Canal, linking Africa to Asia and providing permanent services around the clock for around 28,000 cars.

 

An architecture masterpiece in its design. It lies across the Nile with a length of 980 m at a cost of LE 105 million. Due to its active role in linking Aswan governorate to giant projects in Toshka and New Valley, Aswan Bridge won the first prize of the international competition for infrastructure projects in Mexico, 2005.

 

 

It is a railway swing bridge across the Suez Canal, linking Africa to Asia. It also holds Al-Qantara/Rafah railway line.

 

It lies in Alexandria across the international coastal road. It has a unique design of a square that contributes to bringing about traffic flow.

 

With a length of 600 m, width of 18.5 m and design weight of 90 tons. It has been established to cancel the crossroads at Aga's entrance along Aga/Samanoud road with Banha/Al-Mansoura highway road.

 

 

Al-Azhar Tunnels were opened in October 2001 with a length of 2.6 km, costing LE 890 million. Actual traffic movement in both tunnels reaches about 15 million car/year.

 

It has been established in Ismailia governorate to link both sides of the city with investment cost of about LE 13.5 million.

 

 

Egypt has recently witnessed a great interest in enhancing and upgrading the highway and main road networks to cover all the country. Their length increased to 48,000 km in 2007. Thus, number of passengers increased to 142,026 million passenger/km. Also cargo transport rose to about 46,288 million ton/km during the same year.

 

 

-   Free Dafra / Kafr Az-Zayyat road at a distance of 28 km.

-   Aswan / Bernees  road at a distance of 320 km.

-   Ring Road around Sharm Esh-Sheikh at a distance of 17 km, and the ring road around Al-Fayyoum at a distance of 20 km.

-   Finishing the duality of Ismailia road.

-  Linking the Sinai roads with the main road networks of the Delta and Nile Valley.

River Nile…  Main Artery for Transport

The state exerts strenuous efforts to realize the optimum use of the River Nile to facilitate transportation across its navigational channels on sound technical and eco-nomic basis, thus contributing to adding important projects in the field of river transportation, salient of which are as follows:

-   Increasing the lengths of river transport to around 35,000 through which 2,590 million ton/km were transported in 2007.

-   Upgrading the navigational route of the River Nile at a distance of 783 km.

-   Establishing East Aswan Port behind the High-Dam as a way to activate inte-gration between Egypt and Sudan.

-   Dredging the River Nile waterway in order to make it a secure passage for tour-ism and transportation around the clock.

-   Developing Ar-Rayyah Al-Bahari/An-Nubarriya Canal with a cost of LE 8 mil-lion.

-   Upgrading Cairo-Aswan waterway at a distance of 960 km and eliminating navigation bottlenecks and problems.

-   Establishing the new Delta Lock with a cost of LE 80 million and new Zefta Lock with a cost of LE 170 million.

-   Upgrading and securing the navigational route of Nasser Lake with a cost of LE 4 million.

 

Seaports… A Vital Artery for National Economy

 

Egypt has a number of 40 seaports overlooking the Mediterranean and Red seas and Al-Aqaba Gulf. Within the framework of the continuous development witnessed by maritime transportation, the seaports' capacity reached 80 million tons in 2007, thus contributing to increasing the number of passengers to the Egyptian seaports to 763,000 and the cargo movement to around 11,435,000 tons in the same year.

 

 

The first phase of this project was inaugurated in April 2007. This port is one of Egypt's oldest and most important seaports that attract international maritime trade and tourism. The development works aim at putting it on the maritime map as one of the biggest seaports on the Mediterranean Sea with a total cost of LE 750 million. Such works include upgrading and modernizing the infrastructure, administrative and informational bases of the port, besides renovating the passengers' tourist station, thus making it possible for tourists to move directly from the seaport to the various tourist sites.

 

The new Damietta Harbour was inaugurated with a total capacity of about 7.6 million tons. It is linked by both the River Nile and railways, besides the interna-tional coastal road which borders the harbour from the east and west. Moreover, a new quay station is being currently executed with total investments of about $ 650 million.

 

 

- This system aims at securing the transiting ships in Suez Gulf.

- The first phase of Ad-Dekheila, East Port Said and Al-Ain As-Sokhna harbours has been executed.

4- Developing Sharm el-Sheikh Port

The port was inaugurated in 2006 and witnessed a comprehensive development movement by establishing a deep and graded quay and another one for yachts with a total cost of LE 40 million.

 

Maritime Safety Requirements System

Operation headquarters and crisis managements in the seaports were provided with the new appliances concerning supervising and monitoring the sailing ships 24 hours a day.

 

Egypt established the first airline in the Arab region and the Middle East and became the main station for air transportation between the east and the west in the last years as it currently has about 30 airports.

 

The air transportation sector gains a special importance represented in the fol-lowing points:

 

-  Number of Egypt's aircrafts increased from 14 in 1980 to 48. It is planned to reach 75 in the coming five years. 

 

-  Aircrafts of "Egypt Air" company reach 855 cities in 161 countries.

 

-  Some airports such as those in Luxor, Aswan, Assiut and Borg Al-Arab, are now international ones.  

 

-   Passenger transport movement by "Egypt Air" reached 6.5 million in 2007 and is expected to reach 11 million by 2011.

 

 

Within the framework of tourism promotion by air transportation, 2007 wit-nessed the following developments:

 

It is the region's most time-honoured airport and Egypt's civilizational gateway. Its development and modernization plan aims at scoring the aspired-for increase in the growing tourist movement.

 

a- Its departure halls were developed to raise their accommodation capacity. They were provided with the most up-to-date technology systems to offer the best service to passengers in line with the international standards as follows:

 

- Terminal (3) at a cost of LE 2.42 billion was set up to accommodate about 11 million passengers. The building was provided with the state-of-the-art technologies.

- In compliance with investment approach, departure hall No.4 was established for those who want speedy and high-class service. The hall was dedicated to private airplanes against fees. This hall is a separate building where all services are provided; such as two departure and arrival halls on an area of 4,500 m2 to accommodate 180 passenger/hour. The hall was provided with means of communication, internet service and display monitors.

 

b- A new runway and control tower are under construction in Cairo Airport. The new tower is equipped with the state-of-the-art navigational and communication equipment that help accommodate the movement of aircrafts.

 

Inaugurating the Passenger's Terminal in Sharm el-Sheikh Airport

The new passenger's terminal in Sharm Esh-Sheikh International Airport was inaugurated in May 2007 on an area of 45,000 m2, with a total capacity of 6.3 million passenger/year and a total cost of LE 495 million.

 

The Suez Canal is considered one of the major navigational channels worldwide. Since its official inauguration on November 17, 1869, it has been contributing to boosting the world trade. It is also deemed a main source of foreign currency. It injects into the Egyptian treasury about $ 6 million daily, thus contributing to boosting the national economy.

 

During the period 1981-2007, the Suez Canal's revenues have increased from $ 908.9 million, to $ 4200 million.

 

 

Coping with the international navigational standards, several projects were im-plemented to develop the Suez Canal through carrying out  several projects, thus realizing the following aspects:

 

1- Applying the electronic supervision and control system on navigation in Suez Canal so as to be able to keep pace with the developed mechanisms in the field of electronic navigation in the world.

 

2- Increasing the Canal depth to 66 feet and work is going to reach 72 feet by the end of the 2007-11 five-year plan, thus allowing the transit of jumbo tankers loaded up to 240,000 tons.

 

3- Number of ships going down the Suez Canal recorded 176,000 ships during 2006/07, with a total net tonnage of about 660 million tons.

 

4- Expanding the water section to 6750 m2 during 2007. Besides, the execution of a project to develop the navigational road has started by establishing the most recent by-pass between el-Qantara and el-Defreswar at a length of 28 km so as to contribute to increasing the length of the by-passes and two-way roads of the Canal to 120 km. Hence, in the future it could accommodate giant carriers which are not easily accommodated in some international ports.