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Monday, 14 August 2017

Friday’s fatal train accident dominated debate on the airwaves again last night

Friday’s fatal deadly accident dominated debate on the airwaves again last night.

The head of Egyptian National Railways (ENR) handed over his resignation on Thursday, before the accident, but it was only accepted today, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat told Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary. Plans to overhaul the sector are ongoing and have been presented to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, he added. Arafat said that operational trains will be rotated out of service in the months ahead for maintenance works (watch, runtime 13:07).

The injured are being treated at the government’s expense and the families of victims will be paid EGP 50,000 compensation, Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan told El Hosary (watch, runtime 5:13).

Transport Ministry aide on tunnels, railways, and roads Amr Shaat claimed initial findings suggest the collision was the result of a mixup in signalling on the rail lines. Shaat was speaking with Yahduth fi Misr host Sherif Amer on MBC and stressed that the investigation was ongoing.

Amer also spoke to MP and House Transport Committee member Mohamed Badawi, who said that he is ruling out the possibility of the rail disaster having been caused by a technical problem. Badawi also ruled out earmarking new funds for ENR, saying it just isn’t feasible.

Over on Hona Al Asema, substitute host Dina Zahra covered the newly-issued executive regulations to the Industrial Permits Act. Industrial Development Authority head Ahmed Abdel Razek told Zahra that the IDA is the sole authority concerned with issuing industrial licenses under the act, instead of 11 before. (We have more on the story in Speed Round, below.

A profile of another government-funded low-income housing project (watch, runtime 25:21) and the latest on the relocation of low-income citizens from the Maspero Triangle (watch, runtime 4:10) also cropped up last night.

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