Within the framework of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to expand green, sustainable, clean, and environmentally friendly mass transportation. Lieutenant General Eng. Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of Transport, was accompanied by a parliamentary delegation headed by Parliament Member Alaa Abed, Head of the Parliamentary Transportation Committee, and Parliament Member Mahmoud Al-Dabaa, Deputy of the Parliamentary Transportation Committee; Parliament Member Essam Hilal, Member of the Senate and Assistant Secretary of the Nation's Future Party, Parliament Members: Nader Al-Khabiri, Emad Al-Darjali, Osama Al-Ashmouni, Hossam Al-Mandouh Al-Husseini, Zaki Abbas, Mohammed Ali Abdel Hamid, Deputy of the Parliamentary Economic Committee, Salah Abu Hamila, Head of the Parliamentary Committee of the Republican People's Party, Kamal Abu Jalil, Mahmoud Al-Saidi, Shehata Abu Zaid, Omar Al-Qatami, and Representative Ahmed Al-Sharani, Member of the Senate, in the presence of Eng. Hossam El-Din Al-Rifi, Senior Vice-Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company,
and Eng. El Sayed Al Wazir - AC Board Member, were on an inspection tour to follow up on the implementation rates of the West Nile Monorail Project (6th of October) which extends from New October station to Wadi El Nile station. The length of the West Nile Monorail line is about 43.8 km, and the number of stations is 13 (New October – Al Ahram Canadian University – El Sadat – October 6 University - Syndicate of Engineers - Mall of Egypt - Sheikh Zayed City - Alexandria Mansouria Road – Al Mariouteya - Ring Road - Bashteel - Wadi El Nile) and it is implemented through a consortium of (Alstom - Orascom - The Arab Contractors).
The tour began with an inspection of the control and monitoring center of the West Nile Monorail, which is located near the Industrial Zone on an area of about 80 feddans, and includes 13 buildings (the control and monitoring building through which the trains are controlled, the light and heavy maintenance workshop, a train washing building, a train storage building, and a warehouse for storing various tasks).
Then the Minister of Transport and his accompanying delegation inspected the various sectors of the project to follow up on the implementation of columns, beams, installations of maintenance, emergency walkways, and stations along the track. The total implementation rate reached 48.4% (51% civil works "includes implementation, supply, and design" - 46% electromechanical works), where 60.3% of beams are being installed in the track, 58.3% for stations, 44.4% for transfers, and 41.2% of civil works are being implemented. Equipment is being manufactured by 56%, tests are being carried out successively, and electromechanical equipment supplies are being carried out by 38%.
The tour also included inspecting the site of the Engineers Syndicate station, that serves (Engineers Syndicate - Misr University for Science and Technology - Misr University Hospital - Dar Al Fouad Hospital), through which the passenger transport service will also be exchanged with the first line of the High-Speed Train (Al Ain Al Sokhna – Marsa Matrouh), located 600 meters away from it. The Minister emphasized the necessity of returning all the existing roads in the project implementation sectors to its origin.
The Minister of Transport also followed up the rate of supply of mobile units, as 9 trains have arrived out of a total of 30 trains that will be supplied to the West Nile Monorail (6th of October) and are currently being manufactured according to the specified schedule. Besides, the following up of the commercial usage of the project through advertisements placed on the columns or stations of the project to gain a financial return contributes to providing a distinguished service for the public and ensuring the sustainability of these projects.
The Minister greeted the employees on the occasion of the New Hijri Year and the anniversary of the July 23rd Revolution. He underlined the need for working around the clock and exerting the utmost effort to finalize the project in line with the planned schedule. The project is considered one of the green mass transit and environmentally friendly means of transportation introduced for the first time in Egypt and serves the large expansions in the city of 6 October, such as the social housing project, development projects south of October, and the southern expansions, as well as linking with the Greater Cairo metro line 3 at Wadi El-Nil Station; linking with the first line of High Speed Train (Al Ain Al Sokhna – Alexandria - Marsa Matrouh) at Engineers syndicate Station in 6th of October, and the railway network at Upper Egypt railway at Bashteel in Giza at Bashteel Monorail Station.
The Head of the Parliamentary Transportation Committee and the accompanying delegation of Parliament Members expressed their happiness with what is being achieved on the ground with huge projects during the reign of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressing that the monorail project represents one of the important steps in the green, sustainable mass transit system that is environmentally friendly, and today's visit embodies the positive cooperation between the legislative and executive authorities for the benefit of the Egyptian citizen.
It should be noted that this project will represent a major civilized shift in mass transportation, which is fast, modern, and safe, saves fuel consumption, reduces environmental pollution rates, eases traffic jams on the main axes and streets, and attracts passengers to use them instead of private cars to reduce fuel consumption. The monorail is also characterized by the fact that the distances between its stations are close, with an average of 2 km between each two stations, and it is implemented on an overhead track with the possibility of implementing it in narrow and crowded streets that have large horizontal curves, so that it does not occupy a large space in the streets, has a relatively short implementation period, and has a large transport volume.
It is worth noting that the total length of the two monorail projects (East/West of the Nile) is 100.3 km with 35 stations. The capacity of each of the two monorail lines is 600,000 passengers per day. The monorail train consists of 4 carriages. It is planned to increase the number of carriages to 8 carriages with the increase in population density in the new urban areas it serves.