Kamel Al-Wazir, Egypt’s Ministry of Transport emphasized that the Egyptian government had built the Cairo-Cape Town railway line to connect Egypt with other African countries. Al-Wazir said that Egypt is working with Sudan to connect the Cairo-Cape Town railway route to Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
In this context, Al-Wazir said that the Ministry of Transport had built a six-kilometer railway line from Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan, to connect 360 kilometers of railway lines within the territory of Egypt.
Speaking at a forum for the heads of African investment agencies in Sharm el-Sheikh, Al-Wazir said Egypt had taken “big steps” to increase connectivity between African countries through infrastructure. Efforts to improve land transport networks, railways and seaports have improved Egypt’s ranking in the Road Quality Index, which is included in the Ease of Doing Business report, Al-Wazir said.
The report also underlined that Egypt is ready to transfer its expertise in building intelligent roads to other African countries. In this context, Al-Wazir stated that he continued negotiations with the Libyan government to build a railway line to Benghazi.
Another stop of the Cairo-Cape Town railway project will be South Sudan. In this context, South Sudan investment minister Dhieu Mathok Diing also made statements on the subject. Diing emphasized that the government of the South Sudanese government hopes that the South Sudan line will also be connected two to three years after the completion of the Egypt-Sudan rail link.
Furthermore, nothing that Egypt cares about the development of African countries, Diing said: “Egypt’s willingness to strengthen cooperation between the great economic powers of Africa such as South Africa and Nigeria and other countries makes us believe that we can achieve African integration.”
While railway development has become significantly important in Egypt, the country has witnessed major accidents with regard to this mode of transportation. The latest of these accidents took place in the city of Toukh, killing 23 and injuring 139 people.
