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Monday, 13 February 2017

What is going on with the Transportation Ministry’s projects?

What is going on with the Transportation Ministry’s projects? In a peculiar piece of news, the Transportation Ministry has denied to the House Transportation Committee that it signed an agreement for a USD 1.2 bn electric rail project connecting El Salam City to 10th Ramadan City — one of the projects from the 2015 Egypt Economic Development Conference— with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). Last we heard on the electric rail project, the ministry was awaiting cabinet approval on the agreement after reviving talks with AVIC last November. The ministry also denied that it had signed a EUR 900 mn agreement with Hungary to buy train carriages, said committee member Mohamed Zein El Din. Back in June, the International Cooperation Ministry announced in an official statement that Egypt and Hungary signed letters of intent. It is unclear whether the ministry is saying that final contracts for these have yet to be signed or whether these projects have been put on hold.

The denials come as the ministry, which has never been prompt about clarifying the status of its major projects, is under pressure from the House, with the House Transportation Committee pushing the ministry to explore more “economical” and local alternatives. The ministry could simply be just keeping things close to the chest vis-a-vis MPs, going on the time-proven idea that MPs are like mushrooms — keep them in the dark and feed them [redacted].

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