Tuk-tuks become indispensable in Egypt: Minister

CAIRO - 12 August 2021: The three-wheeled Tuk-tuks (auto-rickshaw) are indispensable means of transportation in Egypt where about 3 million families depend on them as a source of livelihood, said Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Nevin Gamea on Wednesday.

 

In media remarks to “On My Responsibility” talk show on Sada El Balad T.V. Channel, Gamea added that it is quite difficult to prevent the Tuk-tuk operation in Egypt, noting that this means of transportation spreads in rural areas’ number of cities and neighborhoods.

 

The Minister also said that cost of tuk-tuk licenses is high, so the government is working on reducing this cost. 

 

In 2019, the Ministry of Local Development halted issuing licenses for the three-wheeled tuk-tuks (also known as auto-rickshaw), in an effort to replace them with safer minivans that use natural gas. Being unsafe and unlicensed, tuk-tuks were banned as a means of transportation as per a government decree.

 

However, in June 2020, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli asserted the need for legalizing tuk-tuks nationwide while facilitating their license measures. Madbouli instructed the ministers concerned to draft a memorandum including a package of facilitating measures and incentives that would encourage tuk-tuk owners to have their vehicles licensed.

 

In March 2018, the state-owned Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CPAMS) said that the number of licensed tuk-tuks in Egypt in the period between 2014 and 2016 reached 99,000 tuk-tuks, noting that the number is increasing. Meanwhile, the number of unlicensed tuk-tuks reached more than 3 million rickshaws.