Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, accompanied by Lieutenant General Kamel Al Wazir - Minister of Transport followed up on the pilot operation of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project.
This was in the presence of Major Gen. Khaled Abdel Aal – Cairo Governor, Major Gen. Essam Wali – Head of the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT), Eng. Sayed Farouk – CEO and Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company, Eng. Ahmed El Assar – Senior Vice Chairman, Eng. Ibrahim Mabrouk – Board Member and a number of the implementing companies’ officials.
Before the start of the pilot operation of the LRT, the Prime Minister confirmed that there are directives from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi urged speedy completion of the new transportation system as it facilitates the fast and safe movement of citizens and copes with the huge development projects being implemented.
The Transport Minister said that the implementation of the project comes within the political leadership’s directives to expand the country's eco-friendly clean mass transit network, and President El Sisi’s directives to inaugurate the LRT project, which includes: (Al Salam – New Administrative Capital –10th of Ramadan ) by March.
The Prime Minister reported about the pilot operations started on 12 January, then he followed up on the final touches of the finishing works for the first phase (from Adly Mansour station to Arts and Culture station in the New Administrative Capital) in preparation for the inauguration of the project on the scheduled date. He toured the Adly Mansour station to follow the finishing touches and aesthetic touches of the station’s components and its glass dome.
The Prime Minister and Transport Minister took one of the trains running experimentally from Al Shorouk station to Badr station; to check on the progress of the pilot operation. Officials from the Chinese company “AVIC” were informed about the readiness of the electromechanical works, control and signaling systems, power, signals and communications for the opening on the scheduled time. Dr. Moustafa Madbouly and his companions inspected the stations of the project, starting from Adly Mansour Central Interchange Station, which will include an integrated transport complex and commercial investment zone covering an area of 15 feddans. The service will be exchanged between 5 different modes of transport; It includes a metro station for the line3 (opened and operational), a station for the light rail (LRT), a station for “Cairo – Suez” railway, a station for the Superjet, in addition to the BRT (Adly Mansour – El Salam).
The Prime Minister and Minister of Transport also visited the LRT workshop in Badr, which consists of 26 buildings and covers an area of 80 feddans. They followed up on the ongoing tests on the 6-carriage trains for the LRT system, 12 of which have already been delivered out of 22 that will eventually be in operation, as well as a diesel-powered locomotive to be used for workshop activities. This comes at a total cost of $227 million. The remaining 10 trains are being shipped by Chinese CREC-AVIC INTL Consortium, and the design speed of the trains is 120 km/h.
During the tour, the Prime Minister was informed of the executive position of the implementation of the second phase, which extends from the Art and Culture Station to the central interchange station with the High Speed Train on Sokhna Road, 18.5 km length and includes 4 stations.
The Minister of Transport emphasized on the importance of the LRT (El Salam / New Administrative Capital / 10th of Ramadan) as a new development artery for the new urban communities (Al Obour – Al Mostakbal – Al Shorouk – New Heliopolis – Badr – Industrial Zone and 10th of Ramadan – New Administrative Capital), in addition to interchanging for passenger transport with the Metro Line 3 at Adly Mansour station, with the High Speed Train (Ain Sokhna - El Alamein) at the main station, and with the East Nile Monorail, which serves the new administrative capital at Arts and Culture City’s station. He added that waiting areas and pedestrian bridges will be implemented next to all LRT stations; to relieve the citizens, the stations will be used commercially to increase the economic return of the project.