The first line of the Cairo underground metro was constructed in 1982 with aid from France which helped Egypt through the planning, construction and operation stages. It opened in 1989 and connected the suburb of Helwan which lies south east of Cairo with al-Marg to the north east.
After the second line linking the north Cairo district of Shubra and al-Mounib in Giza, south west of Cairo—this line went under the River Nile—opened, France began to study the third to link Imbaba, also in Giza, west of Cairo and the Cairo Airport, east of Cairo. This is expected to be finished by October 2013 at a cost of EGP7.5 billion.
Fifth worldwide
A feasibility study is also underway to establish the first phase of the 12-km-long fourth line, an extension of the existing system. Atta al-Sherbini, head of the national metro authority told Watani that Line Four will cross the area from the southwest at al-Haram to the east at Nasr City, crossing under both branches of the River Nile. “Line Four is linked to the first line at al-Malek al-Saleh station, and to the second line at Giza station,” Mr Sherbini added.
Line Four will pass underground as far as the new Egyptian Museum currently under construction on the desert plateau near the Giza pyramids. However, it is still under study as there are several obstacles, the most important of which is the underground drainage network. The feasibility study, made in cooperation with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is not expected to be completed until March 2010.
Preliminary studies by the Transportation Ministry report that Cairo includes 50kms of underground lines serving 18 million people. These figures rank Cairo as fifth in size of underground lines in the world.
Dr Ahmed Abu-Taleb, professor of roads and traffic at Ain Shams University, expressed a wish to think about feasibility studies for a fifth line. He sees the underground metro is the effective solution to Cairo’s traffic problems.
Serving satellite towns
There is a promising and comprehensive plan, says Abu-Taleb, to link the satellite towns of 6 October City and Sheikh Zayed, west of Giza, via a fast electric metro. This could be implemented within seven or eight years.
Fouad Abdel-Aziz, chairman of the society of Arab roads, stressed the importance of a comprehensive plan, bearing in mind that there is an annual drop in the Egyptian national economy caused by the time lost and the high expense of operating public transport in the rush hour.
“There is, accordingly, an importance in setting up a specialised system, a highways authority, which is a required step to implement a comprehensive transportation plan all over Egypt, especially in rural areas,” Mr Abdel-Aziz says.