Lt. General Eng. Kamel El-Wazir, Minister of Transport, conducted an inspection tour in Upper Egypt, where he followed up the implementation of the first phase of the development of the Western Upper Egypt Desert Road in the distance from Cairo to Minya with a length of 230 km. The project includes the development and expansion of the road to become 3 lanes in each direction with a width of 12 m., the construction of an asphalt road for trucks that includes 3 lanes in the direction of Asyut with a paving width of 11 meters, and a concrete road that includes two lanes in the direction of Cairo with a paving width of 9 meters to carry trucks coming from the quarries and Upper Egypt to Cairo, in addition to establishing 21 industrial works, including 5 bridges and 16 tunnels.
During his inspection of the various sectors of the project, which he started from the toll collection station in 2.85 km on the road, the minister directed that work must be carried out around the clock and standard specifications must observed in its implementation, paying attention to traffic safety insurance and not to set up any random bumps on the road, stressing not to transfer traffic on the service road until after the design pavement sector is completely finished and that a distance of 50 meters is settled on both sides of the road in both directions according to the instructions of the political leadership.
The minister stated that the project was divided among 10 specialized companies and that this project is part of the group of roads that apply Intelligent Transport System (ITS) project, pointing out that this road is part of the national road project, which has a total length of 7,000 km at an estimated cost of EGP 175 bn. Its implementation began in 2014, pointing out that it will be part of the Cairo / Cape Town corridor and that the road is being developed to be a free axis to contribute to facilitating trade movement between the governorates of Upper Egypt.
He added that the political leadership approved the completion of the development of the Western Upper Egypt Desert Road and its extension to Argeen, Sudan with a length of 1155 km within 4 years at a cost of EGP 26 bn. over 6 phases: Phase I is underway in the distance from the intersection with Fayoum Road to Minya, with a length of 230 km. This phase is about to be completed as the rate of implementation reached 94%. Phase II is underway at the distance from Minya to the Dairout axis is 52 km long, and the distance from Edfu to Aswan is 90 km, which began on 1/7/2020 and it is planned to be completed on 30/6/2021. Phase III is in the distance from the Dairout axis through Assiut and Sohag to Qena, with a length of 240 km. Phase IV is in the distance from Qena through Luxor to Edfu with a length of 235 km, while Phase V is in the distance from Aswan to Toshka, with a length of 210 km, and the sixth phase (Phase VI) is in the distance from Toshka to Argeen, at a length of 100 km.
The minister explained that there are 14 axes on the Nile in Upper Egypt, at a cost of EGP18.5 bn., adding that there are four axes: Kalabsha, Qus, Samalout and Adli Mansour.
